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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL 



CHATS WITH ESMERALDA 



THEO. STEPHENSON BROWNE 



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— We two will ride, 

Lady mine, 
At your pleasure, side by side, 
Laugh and chat. 

Aldrich. 

* :opyr< g ^^X 

SEP 221890" ; j\ 



BOSTON 

D LOTHROP COMPANY 

WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD 



Copyright, 1890, 

BY 

D. Lothrop Company. 






TO THE 

MODERN MEN OF UZ ; 

MY 
FRENCH, ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MASTERS. 



CONTENTS. 



I. A Preliminary Chat with Esmeralda . . 7 
The proper frame of mind — Dress — 
Preparatory exercises. 

II. Shall you Take your Mother, Esmeralda ? 19 

The first lesson — Various ways of 
mounting — Slippery reins — Clucking — 
After a ride. 

III. Chat during the Second Lesson ... 34 

Equestrian language — Trotting with- 
out a horse — Exercises in and out of 
the saddle. 

IV. Esmeralda's Trials at the Third Lesson 50 

Pounding the saddle — A critical spec- 
tator — A few rein-holds. 

V. Esmeralda on the Road 64 

Good and bad and indifferent riders — 
A very little runaway. 

VI. The Ordeal of a Private Lesson ... 83 
Voltes and half voltes — " On the right 
hand of the school " — Imagination as a 
teacher. 

VII. Esmeralda at a Music Ride 97 

Sitting like a poker — The ways of the 
bad rider. 



CONTENTS. 



VIII. Esmeralda in Class Ill 

Keeping distances — Corners — Proper 
place in the saddle — Exercises to correct 
nervous stiffness. 

IX. Elementary Military Evolutions . . .126 

"Forward, forward, and again for- 
ward ! " — How to guide a horse easily. 

X. Chat during an Exercise Ride . . . .141 

The deeds of the three-legged trotter 
— The omniscient rider — Backing a step 
or two — Fun in the dressing-room. 

XI. Esmeralda is Managed 158 

Intervals — The secret of learning to 
ride. 

XII. Chat about the Habit 174 

Riding-dress in history and fiction — 
Cloth, linings and sewing — Boots, 
gloves and hats. 

XIII. Chat about Teachers 196 

Foreign and native instructors — Why 
American women learn slowly— " Keep 
riding ! " 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 




Impatient to mount and ride. 

Longfellow. 

&ND you want to learn how to ride, 
Esmeralda ? 

Why ? Because ? Reason good 
and sufficient, Esmeralda ; to require 
anything more definite would be brutal, although 
an explanation of your motives would render 
the task of directing you much easier. 

As you are an American, it is reasonable to 
presume that you desire to learn quickly; as 
you are youthful, it is certain that you earnestly 
wish to look pretty in the saddle, and as you are 
a youthful American, there is not a shadow of 
a doubt that your objections to authoritative 
teaching will be almost unconquerable, and that 
you will insist upon being treated, from the very 
beginning, as if your small head contained the 
7 



W THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 



knowledge of a Hiram Woodruff or of an 
Archer. Perhaps you may find a teacher who 
will comply with your wishes ; who will be ex- 
ceedingly deferential to your little whims ; will 
unhesitatingly accept your report of your own 
sensations and your hypotheses as to their 
cause ; and, Esmeralda, when once your eyes 
behold that model man, be content, and go and 
take lessons of another, for either he is a pre- 
tentious humbug, careless of everything except 
his fees, or he is an ignoramus. 

It may not be necessary that you should be 
insulted or ridiculed in order to become a rider, 
although there are girls who seem utterly im- 
pervious to teaching by gentle methods. Is it 
not a matter of tradition that Queen Victoria 
owes her regal carriage to the rough drill-ser- 
geant, who, after making endless respectful 
suggestions, with no effect upon his pupil, hor- 
rified her governess, and astonished her, by 
sharply saying : " A pretty Queen you'll make 
with that dot-and-go-one gait ! " Up went the 
little chin, back went the shoulders, down went 
the elbows, and, in her wrath, the little princess 
did precisely what the old soldier had been 



IN THE B1D1NG-SCH00L. 



striving to make her do ; but his delighted cry 
of "Just right!" was a surprise to her, inas- 
much as she had been conscious of no muscular 
effort whatever. From that time forth, incessit 
regina. 

You may not need such rough treatment, but 
it is necessary that you should be corrected 
every moment and almost every second until 
you learn to correct yourself, until every muscle 
in your body becomes self-conscious, and until 
an improper position is almost instantly felt as 
uncomfortable, and the teacher who does not 
drill you steadily and continuously, permits you 
to fall into bad habits. 

If you were a German princess, Esmeralda, 
you would be compelled to sit in the saddle for 
many an hour without touching the reins, while 
your patient horse walked around a tan bark 
ring, and you balanced yourself and straightened 
yourself, and adjusted arms, shoulders, waist, 
knees and feet, under the orders of a drill-ser- 
geant, who might, indeed, sugar-coat his phrases 
with "Your Highness," but whose intonations 
would say " You must," as plainly as if he were 
drilling an awkward squad of peasant recruits. 



10 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

If you were the daughter of a hundred earls, 
you would be mounted on a Shetland pony and 
shaken into a good seat long before you outgrew 
short frocks, and afterwards you would be 
trained by your mother or older sisters, by the 
gentlemen of your family, or, perhaps, by some 
trusted old groom, or in a good London riding- 
school, and, no matter who your instructor might 
be, you would be compelled to be submissive 
and obedient. 

But you object that you cannot afford to 
pay for very careful, minute, and long-contin- 
ued training ; that you must content yourself 
with such teaching as you can obtain by riding 
in a ring under the charge of two or three mas- 
ters, receiving such instruction as they find time 
to give you while maintaining order and looking 
after an indefinite number of other pupils. 
Your real teacher in that case must be yourself, 
striving assiduously to obey every order given 
to you, no matter whether it appears unreason- 
able or seems, as the Concord young woman 
said, " in accordance with the latest scientific 
developments and the esoteric meaning of dif- 
ferentiated animal existences." That sentence, 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



by the way, silenced her master, and nearly 
caused him to have a fit of illness from suppres- 
sion of language, but perhaps it might affect 
your teacher otherwise, and you would better 
reserve it for that private mental rehearsal of 
your first lesson which you will conduct in your 
maiden meditation. 

You are to be your own best teacher, you 
understand, and you may be encouraged to 
know that one of the foremost horsemen in the 
country says : " I have had many teachers, but 
my best master was here," touching his fore- 
head. " Where do you ride, sir? " asked one of 
his pupils, after vainly striving with reins and 
whip, knee, heel and spur to execute a move- 
ment which the master had compelled his 
horse to perform while apparently holding him- 
self as rigid as bronze. " I ride here, sir," was 
the grim answer, with another tap on the 
forehead. 

And first, Esmeralda, being feminine, you 
wish to know what you are to wear. 

Until you have taken at least ten lessons, it 
would be simply foolishness for you to buy any 
special thing to wear, except a plain flannel skirt, 



12 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

the material for which should not cost you more 
than two dollars and a half. Harper's Bazar 
has published two or three patterns, following 
which any dressmaker can make a skirt quite 
good enough for the ring. A jersey, a Norfolk 
jacket, a simple street jacket or even an ordi- 
nary basque waist ; any small, close-fitting hat, 
securely pinned to your hair, and very loose 
gloves will complete a dress quite suitable for 
private lessons, and not so expensive that you 
need grudge the swift destruction certain to 
come to all equestrian costumes. Nothing is 
more ludicrous than to see a rider clothed in a 
correct habit, properly scant and unhemmed, to 
avoid all risks while taking fences and hedges 
in a hunting country, with her chimney-pot hat 
and her own gold-mounted crop, her knowing 
little riding-boots and buckskins, with outfit 
enough for Baby Blake and Di Vernon and Lady 
Gay Spanker, and to see that young woman 
dancing in her saddle, now here and now there, 
clinging to the pommel, pulling at the reins in 
a manner to make a rocking-horse rear, and 
squealing tearfully and jerkily : " Oh, ho-ho-oh, 
wh-h-hat m-m-makes h-h-him g-g-go s-s-s-so ? " 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 13 

If you think it possible that you may be easily 
discouraged, and that your first appearance in 
the riding-school will be your last, you need not 
buy any skirt, for you will find several in the 
school dressing-room, and, for once, you may 
submit to wearing a garment not your own. 
Shall you buy trousers or tights ? Wait till you 
decide to take lessons before buying either, first 
to avoid unnecessary expense, and second, be- 
cause until experience shall show you what kind 
of a horsewoman you are likely to be, you can- 
not tell which will be the more suitable and 
comfortable. Laced boots, a plain, dark under- 
skirt, cut princess, undergarments without a 
wrinkle, and no tight bands to compress veins, 
or to restrain muscles by adding their resistance 
to the force of gravitation make up the list of 
details to which you must give your attention 
before leaving home. If you be addicted to 
light gymnastics, you will find it beneficial to 
practise a few movements daily, both before 
taking your first lesson and as long as you may 
continue to ride. 

First — Hold your shoulders square and per- 
fectly rigid, and turn the head toward the right 
four times, and then to the left four times. 



14 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

Second — Bend the head four times to the 
right and four times to the left. 

Third — Bend the head four times to the back 
and four times to the front. These exercises 
will enable you to look at anything which may 
interest you, without distracting the attention 
of your horse, as you might do if you moved 
your shoulders, and thus disturbed your equilib- 
rium on his back. Feeling the change, he nat- 
urally supposes that you want something of 
him, and when you become as sensitive as you 
should be, you will notice that at such times he 
changes his gait perceptibly. 

Fourth — Bend from the waist four times to 
the right, four to the left, four times forward 
and four times backward. These movements 
will not only make the waist flexible, but will 
strengthen certain muscles of the leg. 

Fifth — Execute any movement which expe- 
rience has shown you will square your shoulders 
and flatten your back most effectually. Throw 
the hands backward until they touch one an- 
other, or bring your elbows together behind 
you, if you can. Hold the arms close to the 
side, the elbows against the waist, the forearm 



W THE BIDING-SCHOOL, 15 

at right angles with the arm, the fists clenched, 
with the little finger down and the knuckles fac- 
ing each other, and describe ellipses, first with 
one shoulder, then with the other, then with 
both. This movement is found in Mason's 
School Gymnastics, and is prescribed by M. de 
Bussigny in his little manual for horsewom- 
en, and it will prove admirable in its effects. 
Stretch the arms at full length above the head, 
the palms of the hands in front, the thumbs 
touching one another, and then carry them 
straight outward without bending the elbows, 
and bend them down, the palms still in front, 
until the little finger touches the leg. This 
movement is recommended by Mason and also 
by Blaikie, and as it is part of the West Point 
" setting up " drill, it may be regarded as con- 
sidered on good authority to be efficacious in 
producing an erect carriage. Stand as upright 
as you can, your arms against your side, the 
forearm at right angles, as before, and jerk your 
elbows downward four times. 

Sixth — Sit down on the floor with your feet 
stretched straight before you, and resting on 
their heels, and drop backward until you are 



16 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

lying flat, then resume your first position, keep- 
ing your arms and forearms at right angles dur- 
ing the whole exercise. Still sitting, bend as 
far to the right as you can, and then bend as 
far as possible to the left, resuming a perfectly 
erect position between the movements, and 
keeping your feet and legs still. Rising, stand 
on your toes and let yourself down fifty times ; 
then stand on your heels, and raise and lower 
the toes fifty times. The firmer you hold your 
arms and hands during these movements, the 
better for you, Esmeralda, and for the horse 
who will be your first victim. 

Already one can seem to see him, poor, 
innocent beast, miserable in the memories of 
an army of beginners, his mouth so accus- 
tomed to being jerked in every direction, 
without anything in particular being meant by 
it, that neither Arabia nor Mexico can furnish 
a bit which would surprise him, or startle 
his four legs from their propriety. No cow 
is more placid, no lamb more gentle ; he 
would not harm a tsetse fly or kick a snapping 
terrier. His sole object in life is to keep him- 
self and his rider out of danger, and to betake 



IN THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 17 

himself to that part of the ring in which the 
least labor should be expected of him. The 
tiny girls and bright little boys who ride him 
call him " dear old Billy Buttons," or " darling 
Gypsy," or "nice Sir Archer." Heaven knows 
what he calls them in his heart ! Were he 
human, it would be something to be expressed 
by dashes and " d's " ; but, being a horse, he is 
silent, and shows his feelings principally by 
heading for the mounting-stand whenever he 
thinks that a pupil's hour is at an end. 

Why that long face, Esmeralda ? Must you 
do all those exercises ? Bless your innocent 
soul, no ! Dress yourself and run away. The 
exercises will be good for you, but they are not 
absolutely necessary. Remember, however, 
that your best riding master is behind your 
own pretty forehead, and that your brain can 
save your muscles many a strain and many a 
pound of labor. And remember, too, that, in 
riding, as in everything else, to him that hath 
shall be given, and the harder and firmer your 
muscles when you begin, the greater will be 
the benefit which you will derive from your 
rides, and the more you will enjoy them. The 



18 IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 

pale and weary invalid may gain flesh and color 
with every lesson, but the bright and healthy 
pupil, whose muscles are like iron, whose heart 
and lungs are in perfect order, can ride for 
hours without weariness, and double her strength 
in a comparatively short time. 

But — Esmeralda, dear, before you go — whis- 
per ! Why do you want to take riding lessons ? 
Theodore asked you to go out with him next 
Monday, and Nell said that she would lend you 
her habit, and you thought that you would take 
three lessons and learn to ride ? You did, eh ? 
Three lessons ! There, go and dress, child ; 
go and dress ! 




IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 19 



II. 

Bring forth the horse ! 

Byron. 

kEING ready to start, Esmeralda, the 
question now arises : "Is a riding- 
school," as the girl asked about the 
new French play, " a place to which 
one can take her mother ? " Little girls too 
young to dress themselves should be attended 
by their mothers or by their maids, but an older 
girl no more needs guardianship at riding-school 
than at any other place at which she receives, 
instruction, and there is no more reason why 
her mother should follow her into the ring than, 
into the class-room. 

Her presence, even if she preserve absolute* 
silence, will probably embarrass both teacher 
and pupil, and although her own children mayr 
not be affected by it, it will be decidedly, trouble- 
some to the children of other mothers>. 

If, instead of being quiet, she talk, and it is^ 
the nature of the mother who ace&mpanies.. herr 



20 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

daughter to riding-school to talk volubly and 
loudly, she will become a nuisance, and even a 
source of actual danger, by distracting the at- 
tention of the master from his pupils, and the 
attention of the pupils from their horses, to say 
nothing of the possibility that some of her 
pretty, ladylike little screams of, " Oh, darling, 
I know you're tired ! " " Don't you want to dis- 
mount, dear?" or, " Oh, what a horrid horse; 
see him jump ! " may really frighten some lucky 
animal whose acquaintance has included no 
women but the sensible. 

If she be inclined to laugh at the awkward 
beginners, and to ridicule them audibly — but 
really, Esmeralda, it should not be necessary to 
consider such an action, impossible in a well- 
bred woman, unlikely in a woman of good feel- 
ing ! Leave your mother, if not at home, in the 
dressing-room or the reception room, and go to 
the mounting-stand alone. 

In some schools you may ride at any time, 
but the usual morning hours for ladies' lessons 
are from nine o'clock until noon, and the after- 
noon hours from two o'clock until four. 

Some masters prefer that their pupils should 



IN THE HIDINGS CHOOL. 



have fixed days and hours for their lessons, and 
others allow the very largest liberty. For your 
own sake it is better to have a regular time for 
your lessons, but if you cannot manage to do 
so, do not complain if you sometimes have to 
wait a few minutes for your horse, or for your 
master. 

The school is not carried on entirely for 
your benefit, although you will at first assume 
that it is. As a rule, a single lesson will cost 
two dollars, but a ten-lesson ticket will cost but 
fifteen dollars, a twenty-lesson ticket twenty- 
five dollars, and a ticket for twenty exercise 
rides twenty dollars. In schools which give 
music-rides, there are special rates for the even- 
ings upon which they take place, but you need 
not think of music-rides until you have had at 
least the three lessons which you desire. 

Buy your ticket before you go to the dressing- 
room, and ask if you may have a key to a locker. 
Dress as quickly as you can, and if there be no 
maid in the dressing-room, lock up your street 
clothing and keep your key. If there be a 
maid, she will attend to this matter, and will 
assist you in putting on your skirt, showing you 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



that it buttons on the left side, and that you 
must pin down the basque of your jersey or 
your jacket in the back, unless you desire it to 
wave wildly with every leap of your horse. 
Flatter not yourself that lead weights will pre- 
vent this ! When a horse begins a canter that 
sends you, if your feelings be any gauge, eight- 
een good inches nearer the ceiling, do you think 
that an ounce of lead will remain stationary ? 
Give a final touch to your hairpins and hatpins, 
button your gloves, pull the rubber straps of 
your habit over your right toe and left heel, and 
you are ready. 

In most schools, you will be made to mount 
from the ground, and you will find it surpris- 
ingly and delightfully easy to you. What it 
may be to the master who puts you into the 
saddle is another matter, but nine out of ten 
teachers will make no complaint, and will assure 
you that you do very well. 

If you wish to deceive any other girl's incon- 
siderate mother whom you may find comfortably 
seated in a good position for criticism, and to 
make her suppose that you are an old rider, 
keep silence. Do not criticise your horse or his 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 23 

equipments, do not profess inability to mount, 
but when your master says " Now ! " step for- 
ward and stand facing in the same direction as 
your horse, placing your right hand on the 
upper pommel of the two on the left of the 
saddle. 

Set your left foot in whichever hand he holds 
out for it. Some masters offer the left, and 
some the right, and some count for a pupil, and 
others prefer that she should count for herself. 
The usual " One, two, three ! " means, one, 
rest the weight strongly on the right foot; two, 
bend the right knee, keeping the body perfectly 
erect ; three, spring upward from the right foot, 
turning very slightly to the left, so as to place 
yourself sidewise on the saddle, your right hand 
toward the horse's head. 

Some masters offer a shoulder as a support 
for a pupil's left hand, and some face toward the 
horse's head and some toward his tail, so it is 
best for you to wait a little for directions, 
Esmeralda, and not to suppose that, because 
you know all about Lucy Fountain's way of 
mounting a horse, or about James Burdock's 
tuition of Mabel Vane, there is no other method 
of putting a lady in the saddle. 



IX THE BIDIXG-SCIIOOL. 



After your first lesson, you will find it well to 
practise springing upward from the right foot, 
holding your left on a hassock, or a chair rung, 
your right hand raised as if grasping the pom- 
mel, your shoulders carefully kept back, and 
your body straight. It is best to perform this 
exercise before a mirror, and when you begin to 
think that you have mastered it, close your eyes, 
give ten upward springs and then look at your- 
self. A hopeless wreck, eh ? Not quite so bad 
as that, but, before, you unconsciously corrected 
your position by the eye, and you must learn to 
do it entirely by feeling. You will probably 
improve very much on a second trial, because 
your shoulders will begin to be sensitive. Why 
not practise this exercise before your first les- 
son ? Because you should know just how your 
master prefers to stand, in order to be able to 
imagine him standing as he really will. It is 
not unusual to see riders of some experience 
puzzled and made awkward by an innovation on 
what they have regarded as the true and only 
method of mounting, although, when once the 
right leg and wrist are properly trained, a 
woman ought to be able to reach the saddle 



IX THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 25 

without caring what is her escort's method of 
assistance. 

Mounting from a high horseblock is a matter 
of being fairly lifted into the saddle, and you 
cannot possibly do it improperly. It is easy, 
but it gives you no training for rides outside 
the school, and masters use it, not because they 
approve of it, but because their pupils, not 
knowing how easy it is to mount from the 
ground, often desire it. 

But, being in the saddle, turn so as to face 
your horse's head, put your right knee over the 
pommel, and slip your left foot into the stirrup. 
Then rise on your left foot and smooth your 
skirt, a task in which your master will assist 
you, and take your reins and your whip from 
him. 

How shall you hold your reins ? As your 
master tells you ! Probably, He will give you but 
one rein at first, and very likely will direct you 
to hold it in both hands, keeping them five or 
six inches apart, the wrists on a level with the 
elbows or even a very little lower, and he is not 
likely to insist on any other details, knowing that 
it will be difficult for you to attain perfection in 



IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 



these. An English master might give you a 
single rein to be passed outside the little finger, 
and between the forefinger and middle finger, 
the loop coming between the forefinger and 
thumb, and being held in place by the thumb. 
Then he would expect you to keep your right 
shoulder back very firmly, but a French master 
will tell you that it is better to learn to keep 
the shoulder back while holding a rein in the 
right hand, and an American master will usually 
allow you to take your choice, but, until you 
have experience, obey orders in silence. 

And now, having taken your whip, draw your- 
self back in your saddle so as to feel the pom- 
mel under your right knee ; sit well towards the 
right, square your shoulders, force your elbows 
well down, hollow your waist a little, and start. 
He won't go ? Of course he will not, until bid- 
den to do so, if he know his business. Bend 
forward the least bit in the world, draw very 
slightly on the reins, and rather harder on the 
right, so as to turn him from the stand, and 
away he walks, and you are in the ring. You 
had no idea that it was so large, and you feel 
as if lost on a western prairie, but you are in no 



IX THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



danger whatsoever. You cannot fall off while 
your right knee and left foot are in place, and 
if you deliberately threw yourself into the tan, 
you would be unhurt, and the riding-school 
horse knows better than to tread on anything 
unusual which he may find in his way. 

Now, Esmeralda, keep your mind — No, your 
saddle is not turning ; it is well girthed. You 
feel as if it were ? Pray, how do you know how 
you would feel if a saddle were to turn ? Did 
you ever try it ? And your saddle is not too 
large ! Neither is it too small ! And there 
is nothing at all the matter with your horse ! 
Now, Esmeralda, keep your mind — No, that 
other girl is not going to ride you down. Her 
horse would not allow her, if she endeavored to 
do so. The trouble is that she does not guide 
her horse, but is worrying herself about stay- 
ing on his back, when she should be thinking 
about making him turn sharp corners and go 
straight forward. Regard her as a warning, 
Esmeralda, and keep your mind — What is 
the matter with the reins ? Apparently they 
are oiled, for they have slipped from under your 
thumbs, and your horse is wandering along with 



IJSf THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



drooping head, looking as if training to play the 
part of the dead warrior's charger at a military 
funeral. 

Shorten your reins now, carefully ! Not quite 
so much, or your horse will think that you 
intend to begin to trot, and do not lean 
backward, or he will fancy that you wish him 
to back or to stop. The poor thing has to 
guess at what a pupil wishes, and no wonder 
that he sometimes mistakes. 

But, Esmeralda, keep your mind on those 
thumbs and hold them close to your forefingers. 
Driving will give no idea of the slipperiness of 
leather, but after your first riding lesson you 
will wonder why it is not used to floor roller- 
skating rinks. But remember that your reins 
are for your horse's support, not for yours ; they 
are the telegraph wires along which you send 
despatches to him, not parallel bars upon which 
your weight is to depend. Hitherto, you have 
not ridden an inch. Your horse has strolled 
about, and you have not dropped from his back, 
and that is not riding, but now you shall begin. 
In a large ring, pupils are required to keep to 
the wall when walking, as this gives the horse a 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 29 

certain guide, but in small rings the rule is to 
keep to the wall when trotting, so as to improve 
every foot of space, and to walk about six feet 
from the wall, not in a circle, but describing a 
rectangle. New pupils are always taught to 
turn to the right, and to make all their move- 
ments in that direction. Hold your thumbs 
firmly in place, and draw your right hand a 
very little upward and inward, touching your 
whip lightly to the horse's right side, and turn- 
ing your face and leaning your body slightly 
to the right. 

The instant that the corner is turned drop 
your hand, keeping the thumb in place, square 
your shoulders, look straight between your 
horse's ears, and then allow your eyes to range 
upward as far as possible without losing sight 
of him altogether. No matter what is going on 
about you. Very likely, the criticising mamma 
on the mounting-stand is scolding sharply about 
nothing. Possibly, a dear little boy is fairly fly- 
ing about the ring on a pony that seems to have 
cantered out of a fairy tale, and a marvel- 
lously graceful girl, whom you envy with your 
whole soul, is doing pirouettes in the centre 
of the rinsr. 



30 IN THE BIDING-SCHO.OL. 

All that is not your business. Your sole 
concern is to keep your body in position, and 
your mind fixed on making your horse obey 
you, doing nothing of his own will. Stop him 
now and then by leaning back, and drawing on 
the reins, not with your body, but with your 
hands. Then lean forward and go on, but if 
he should remain planted as fast as the Great 
Pyramid, if when started he should go like a 
snail, if he should refuse to pay any attention 
to the little taps of your left heel and the 
touches of your whip, nay, if he should lie down 
and pretend to die, like a trick horse in a circus, 
don't cluck. No good riding master will teach 
a pupil to cluck or will permit the practice to 
pass unreproved, and riding-school horses do 
not understand it, and are quite as likely to 
start at the cluck of a rider on the other side 
of the ring as they are when a similar noise is 
made by the person on their own backs. 

But now, just as you have shortened your reins 
for the fortieth time or so, your master rides up 
beside you. You told him of your little three- 
lesson plan, and, being wise in his generation, he 
smilingly assented to it. " Shall we trot?" he 



IX THE BIDIXa-SCHOOL. 



asks, in an agreeable voice. " Shorten your reins, 
now ! Don't pull on them ! Right shoulder 
back ! Now rise from the saddle as I count, 
' One, two, three, four ! ' Off we go ! " You 
would like to know what he meant by "off!" 
"Off," indeed! You thought you were "off" 
the saddle. You have been bounced up and 
down mercilessly, and have gasped, " Stop him ! " 
before you have been twice around the ring, 
and not one corner have you been able to turn 
properly. As for your elbows, you know that 
they have been flying all abroad,, but still — it 
was fun, and you would like to try again. You 
do try again, and, at last, you are conscious of 
a sudden feeling of elasticity, of sympathy with 
your horse, of rising when he does, and then 
your master looks at you triumphantly, and 
says : " You rose that time," and leaves you to 
go to some other pupil. And then you walk 
your horse again, trying to keep in position, 
and you make furtive little essays at trotting 
by yourself, and find that you cannot keep your 
horse to the wall, although you pull your hardest 
at his left rein, the reason being that, uncon- 
sciously, you also pull at the right rein, and that 



32 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

he calmly obeys what the reins tell him and goes 
straight forward. Then your master offers to 
help you by lifting you, grasping your right arm 
with his left hand, and you make one or two 
more circuits of the ring, and then the hour is 
over and you dismount and go to the dressing- 
room. 

Tired, Esmeralda ? A little, and you do won- 
der whether you shall not be a bruised piece of 
humanity to-morrow. Not if your flesh be as 
hard as any girl's should be in these days of 
gymnasiums, but if you have managed to bruise 
a muscle or to strain one, lay a bottle of hot 
water against it when you go to bed and it will 
not be painful in the morning. If, in spite of 
warnings, you have been so careless about your 
underclothing as to cause a blister, a bit of 
muslin saturated with vaseline, with a drop of 
tincture of benzoin rubbed into it, makes a 
plaster which will end the smart instantly. 

This is not a physician's prescription, but is 
that of a horseman who for years led the best 
riding class in Boston, and it is asserted that 
nobody was ever known to be dissatisfied with 
its effects. Muffle yourself warmly, Esmeralda, 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



and hasten home, for nothing is easier than to 
catch cold after riding. Air your frock and 
cloak before an open fire to volatilize the slight 
ammoniacal scent which they must inevitably 
contract in the locker, and then be as good to 
yourself as the hostler will be to your poor 
horse. That is to say, give yourself a sponge 
bath in hot water, with a dash of Sarg's soap 
and almond meal in it, rubbing dry with a Turk- 
ish towel, and then dress and go down to dinner. 
Looking at your glowing face and shining 
eyes, your father will tell your mother that she 
should have gone also, but when he marks the 
havoc which you make with the substantial part 
of the meal, and sees that your appetite for 
dessert is twice as good as usual, he will reflect 
upon his butcher's and grocer's bills, and, con- 
sidering what they would be with provision to 
make for two such voracious creatures, he will 
say, "No, Esmeralda, don't take your mother !" 




34 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



III. 

Up into the saddle, 
Lithe and light, vaulting she perched. 

Hayne. 

SjND you still think, Esmeralda, that 
three lessons will be enough to make 
you a horse woman, and that by 
next Monday you will be able to join 
the road party, and witch the world with your 
accomplishments ? 

Very well, array yourself for conquest and 
come to the school. Talk is cheap, according 
to a proverb more common than elegant ; but it 
is sinful to waste the cheapest of things. While 
you dress, you will meditate upon the sensation 
which it is your intention to make in the ring, 
and upon the humiliation which you will heap 
upon your riding master by showing wonderful 
ability to rise in the saddle. Although not quite 
ready to assert ability to ride hour after hour like 
a mounted policeman, you feel certain that you 
could ride as gracefully as he, and perhaps you 
are right, for official position does not confer 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



wisdom in equitation. To say nothing of police- 
men, it is not many seasons since an ambitious 
member of the governor's staff presented him- 
self before a riding master to " take a lesson, 
just to get used to it, you know ; got to review 
some regiments at Framingham to-morrow." 
And when, after some trouble, he had been 
landed in the saddle, never a strap had he, and 
long before his lesson hour was finished, he was 
a spectacle to make a Prussian sentinel giggle 
while on duty. 

And for your further encouragement, Esmer- 
alda, know that it is but a few years ago that a 
riding master, in answer to a rebellious pupil who 
defended some sin against Baucher with, " Mr. 
— of the governor's staff always does so," re- 
torted, "There is just one man on the gov- 
ernor's staff who can ride, and I taught him ; 
and if he had ridden like that ! " An awful si- 
lence expressed so many painful possibilities 
that the pupil was meek and humble ever after, 
and yet it was not written in any newspaper 
that any of those ignorant colonels were 
thrown from their saddles in public, nor did 
the strapless gentleman furnish amusement to 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



civilian or soldier by rolling on the grass at 
Framingham. 

The truth is, that the number of persons 
able to judge of riding is smaller than the num- 
ber able to ride, and that number is rather less 
than one in a hundred of those who appear on 
horseback either in the ring or on the road ; but 
Boston could furnish a legion of men and women 
who find healthful enjoyment in the saddle, and 
who look passably well while doing it, and possi- 
bly you may add yourself to their ranks after a 
very few lessons, although there is — You are 
ready ? Come, then ! 

Into the saddle well enough, thanks to your 
master, but why that ghastly pause ? Turn in- 
stantly, place your knee over the pommel and 
thrust your foot into the stirrup, if you possibly 
can, without waiting for assistance. Teachers 
of experience, riding masters, dancing masters, 
musicians, artists, gymnasts, will unite in telling 
you that unless a pupil's mental qualities be 
rather extraordinary, it is more difficult to im- 
part knowledge at a second lesson than at 
the first, simply because the pupil gives less 
attention, expecting his muscles to work me- 
chanically. 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 37 

Undoubtedly, after long training, fingers will 
play scales, and flying feet whirl their owner 
about a ballroom without making him conscious 
of every muscular extension and contraction, 
but this facility comes only to those who, in the 
beginning, fix an undivided mind upon what 
they are doing, and who never fall into wilful 
negligence. 

Keep watch of yourself, manage yourself 
as assiduously as you watch and manage your 
horse, and ten times more assiduously than 
you would watch your fingers at the piano, 
or your feet in the dancing class, because you 
must watch for two, for your horse and for your- 
self. If you give him an incorrect signal, he 
will obey it, you will be unprepared for his next 
act, and in half a minute you will have a very 
pretty misunderstanding on your hands. 

But there is no reason for being frightened. 
You cannot fall, and if your horse should show 
any signs of actual misbehavior, you would find 
your master at your right hand, with fingers of 
steel to grasp your reins, and a voice accus- 
tomed to command obedience from quadrupeds, 
howsoever little of it he mav be able to obtain 



38 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

at first from well-meaning bipeds. You are per- 
fectly safe with him, Esmeralda, not only be- 
cause he knows how to ride, but because the 
strongest of all human motives, self-interest, is 
enlisted to promote your safety. " She said 
she was afraid to risk her neck," said an ex- 
hausted teacher, speaking the words of frank- 
ness to a spectator, as a timid and stupid pupil 
disappeared into the dressing-room, " and I 
told her that she could afford the risk better 
than I. If she broke it, don't you know, it 
probably could not be mended, but mine might 
be broken in trying to save her, and, at the 
best, my reputation and my means of gaining a 
livelihood would be gone forever in an instant. 
It's only a neck with her ; it's life and wife and 
babies that I risk, and I'll insure her neck." 
And when the stupid pupil, who was a lady in 
spite of her dulness, came from the dressing- 
room, calmed and quieted, and began to offer a 
blushing apology, he repeated his remarks to 
her, and so excellent was the understanding es- 
tablished between them after this little incident 
that she actually came to be a tolerable rider. 
Feeling that he would tell her to do nothing 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 39 

dangerous to her, she was ready at his command 
to lie down on her horse's back and to raise her- 
self again and again, and, after doing this a few 
times, and bending alternately to the right and 
to the left, the saddle seemed quite homelike, 
and to remain in it sitting upright was very 
easy for a few moments. 

Only for a few moments, however, for the 
necessity of paying attention still remained, 
as it does with you, and again she stiffened 
herself, as you are doing now. 

As Mr. Mead very justly says, in his " Horse- 
manship for Women," a lesson may be learned 
from a bag of grain set up on horseback, which 
is, that while the lower part of your body should 
settle itself almost lazily in^ place, the upper 
part, which is comparatively light, should. sway 
slightly but easily with the horse's motion. 

Manage to ride behind the girl who was 
teaching herself to do pirouettes the other day. 
Her horse is walking rapidly, and you could 
almost fancy that her prettily squared shoulders 
were part" of him, so sympathetically do they 
respond to each step, but if you should let your 
horse straggle against hers and frighten him, 



40 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

you would see that no rock is more firmly seated 
than she. 

If it should please your master to require 
you to perform the bending exercise, you will 
feel the advantage of having practised it at 
home, for it is infinitely easier in the saddle 
than it is on the floor, and your riding master 
will be exceedingly pleased at the ease with 
which you effect it. There is no necessity 
for telling him that the little feat is quite 
familiar to you. The woman of sense keeps 
as many of her doings secret as she can, 
and the wise pupil confesses to no knowledge 
except that derived from her master. Being, in 
spite of his superior knowledge, a mortal man, 
he will take twic^ the pains with her, and a 
hundredfold more pride in her if persuaded that 
she owes everything to him. 

There is no reason to worry about a little 
stiffness during the first lessons. It is almost 
entirely nervousness, and will disappear as soon 
as you are quite comfortable and easy, but 
the beautiful flexibility of the good horse- 
woman comes only to her whose muscles 
are perfectly trained, and it is surprising how 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 41 

few muscles there are to which one may not 
give employment in an hour's practice in 
the ring. If you like, you may, without the 
assistance of your master, lean forward to the 
right side until your left shoulder touches your 
horse's crest, and when you are trotting it is 
well now and then to lean forward and to the 
right until you can see your horse's forefeet, but 
you would better not perform the same exercise 
on the left side for the present, for you might 
overbalance yourself and almost slip from the 
saddle. If able, as you should be, to touch the 
floor with your finger tips without bending your 
knees, this little movement will be nothing to 
you, but do not bend to the left, Esmeralda. 
Why not ? Why, because if you will have the 
truth, you are slipping toward the left already, 
your right shoulder is drooping forward, and 
your weight is hanging in your stirrup and pull- 
ing your saddle to the left so forcibly that your 
horse has lost all respect for you, and would be 
thoroughly uncomfortable, were it not that you 
have forgotten all about your thumbs, and have 
allowed your reins to slip away from you, so 
that he is going where he pleases, except when 



42 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

you jerk him sharply to the right, and then he 
shakes and tosses his head and goes on con- 
tentedly, as one saying, "All things have an 
end, even a new pupil's hour." 

Now, sit well to the right, remembering the 
meal sack; shorten your reins, keeping your 
elbows down and your hands low. Shorten 
them a very little more, so as to bring your 
elbows further forward. When you stop, you 
should not be compelled to jerk your elbows 
back of your waist, but should bring them 
into line with it, leaning back slightly, and 
drawing yourself upward. Stop your horse 
now, for practice. Do not speak to him dur- 
ing your first lessons, except by your master's 
express command, but address him in his own 
language, using your reins, your foot, and your 
whip, if your master permit. " Why do you 
make coquette with your horse?" asked a 
French master of a pretty girl who was coax- 
ingly calling her mount "a naughty, horrid 
thing," and casting glances fit to distract a man 
on the ungrateful creature's irresponsive crest. 
"Your horse does not care anything at all about 
you ; don't you think he does ! " pursued he, 



W THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



ungallantly. "You may coax me as much as 
you like," said a Yankee teacher to a young 
woman who was trying the "treat him kindly " 
theory, and was calling her horse a " dear old 
ducky darling;" "and," he continued, "I'm 
rather fond of candy myself, but it isn't coaxing 
or lump sugar that will make that horse go. 
It's brains and reins and foot and whip." 

When you have a horse of your own, talk to 
him as much as you like, and teach him your 
language as an accomplishment, but address the 
riding-school horse in his own tongue, until you 
have mastered it yourself. 

Now, adjust yourself carefully, lean for- 
ward, extend your hands a very little, touch 
your horse with your left heel, and, as soon 
as he moves, sit erect and let your hands 
resume their position. Hasten his steps until 
he is almost trotting, before you strike him 
with the whip. You can do this by very 
slightly opening and shutting your fingers in 
time with the slight pull which he gives with 
his head at every step, by touches with your 
heel, and by touches, not blows, with the whip, 
and by allowing yourself, not to rise, but to sit 



44 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

a little lighter with each step. It is not very 
easy to do, and you need not be discouraged if 
you cannot effect it after many trials. Some 
masters will tell you to strike your horse on the 
shoulder, and some will prefer that you should 
strike him on the flank as a signal for trotting. 
Those who prefer the former will tell you to 
carry your whip pointing forward ; the others 
will tell you to carry it pointing backward, and 
many masters will say that it makes little differ- 
ence as long as it is carried gracefully, and as 
long as you understand that it takes the place 
of a leg on the right side of the horse. General 
Anderson, in " On Horseback," lays down the 
rule that a horse should never be struck on the 
shoulder, as it will cause him to swerve, but use 
your master's horses in obedience to his orders. 
Now, then, one, two, three, four ! One, two, 
three, four ! You don't seem to be astonishing 
anybody very much, Esmeralda ! Again, one, 
two, three, four ! Never mind ! Sit down and 
let the horse do the work. Keep your left heel 
down, and your left knee close to the saddle. 
Not close to the pommel, understand, but close to 
the saddle. Try and imagine, if you like, that you 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 45 

are carrying a dollar between the knee and the 
saddle, after the West Point fashion, and do not 
fret overmuch because you are not rising. If you 
were a cavalryman riding with your troop, you 
would not be allowed to rise, and to sit properly 
while sitting close is an accomplishment not to 
be despised. " Ow ! " What does that mean ? 
You rose without trying ? Watch yourself care- 
fully, and if such a phenomenon should occur 
again, try to make it repeat itself by letting 
yourself down into the saddle, and then rising 
again quickly. But keep trotting ! Count how 
many times you trot around the ring, and men- 
tally pledge yourself to increase the number of 
circuits at your next lesson. And — " Cluck ! " 
Sit down in the saddle, Esmeralda ! Lean 
back a little, bring your left knee up against the 
pommel, keeping the lower part of the leg close 
against the saddle ; keep your right knee in 
place and your right foot and the lower part of 
your right leg close to the saddle ; guide your 
horse, but do not otherwise exert yourself. How 
do you like it ? Delightful ? Yes, with a good 
horse it is as delightful as sitting in a rocking- 
chair, but, if you were a rider of experience, 



46 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL, 

you would not allow your horse to enter upon 
the gait without permission, but would bring 
him back to the trot by slightly pulling first the 
left rein and then the right, a movement which 
is called sawing the mouth. The poor creature 
is really not in fault. He heard the cluck given 
by that complacent-looking man, trotting slowly 
about, and not knowing how to use his reins 
and knees in order to go faster, and he said to 
himself : " She is tired of trotting and wants a 
rest ; so do I," and away he went. If you had 
been trying to rise, you might have been thrown, 
for the greatest danger that you will encounter 
in the school comes from rising while the horse 
is at a canter. The cadence of the motion is 
triple, instead of in common time like that of 
the trot, and you will soon distinguish the dif- 
ference, but eschew cantering at first. If you 
once become addicted to it, you will never learn 
to trot, or even to walk well. 

Having had your little warning against 
clucking, perhaps you will now sympathize 
with the indignant Englishwoman who, having 
been almost unseated by a similar mischance, 
responded, when the clucking cause thereof 



m THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 47 

rode up to say that he was sorry that her 
horse should behave so : " It wasn't the horse 
that was in fault, sir; it was a donkey." But 
now, try a round or two more of trotting, 
then guide your horse carefully about the 
ring two or three times, bring him up to the 
mounting-stand, dismount, and go to the dress- 
ing-room. You are rather warm, but not in the 
least tired, and you have had " such a good 
time," as you enthusiastically explain to every- 
body who will listen to you, but as there is much 
merry chatter going on from behind screens, 
and as it is all to the same effect, nobody pays 
much attention, and if you were cross and com- 
plaining, everybody would laugh at you. A 
riding-school is a place from which every woman 
issues better contented than she entered, and 
there is no sympathy for grumblers. 

Remember to be careful about your wraps, 
and that you may be able to ride better next 
time, practise these exercises at home : Place 
your knees together and heels together, adjust 
your shoulders, hands and arms as if you were 
in the saddle, and sit down as far as possible, 
while keeping the legs vertical from the knee 



48 IN THE EIDING-SCHOOL. 

down. Rise, counting "One," sink again, rise 
once more at " Two," and continue through 
three measures, common time. Rest a minute 
and repeat until you are a little weary. Nothing 
is gained by doing too much work, but if you do 
just enough of this between lessons, you cannot 
possibly grow stiff. When you can do it fairly 
well, try to do it first on one foot and then on 
the other, and then bring your right foot in 
front of your left knee, and, standing on your 
left foot, assume, as nearly as possible, the 
proper position for the saddle, and try to rise in 
time. You will not find it very difficult, and 
you will be compelled to keep your heel down 
while doing it, especially if you put a block 
about an inch thick under your left toe. You 
may try doing it while sitting sidewise in a 
chair, if it be difficult for you to poise yourself 
on one foot, but a girl who cannot stand thus 
for some time, long enough to lace her riding 
boot, for instance, is much too weak for her own 
good. 

Take all your spare minutes for this work, 
Esmeralda. Bob up and down in all the 
secluded corners of the house ; try to feel the 



m THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 49 

motion in the horse-cars — it will not need 
much effort in many of them. And if you want 
to be comfortable in a herdic, sit sidewise and 
pretend that the seat is a horse. This is Mr. 
Hurlbut's rule for riding in an Irish "outside 
car." In short, while taking your first riding- 
lessons, walk, sit and think to the tune of 

" One, two, three, four ! 

Near the wall, 
Make him trot ; 

You cannot fall I " 



IX THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 




IV. 

The horse does not attempt to fly; 
He knows his powers, and so should I. 

Spurgeon. 

|ILFUL will to water, eh, Esmeral- 
da ? You are determined to appear 
in that riding party after your third 
lesson, and you think that you <r will 
look no worse than a great many others." Un- 
doubtedly, that is true, and more's the pity, 
but, since go you will, let us make the most of 
the third lesson, and trust that you will return 
in a whole piece, like Henry Clay's pie. 

You do not see why there is any more danger 
on the road than in the ring, and you have never 
been thrown ! It would be unkind, in the face of 
that " never," to remind you that you have been 
in the saddle precisely twice, and, really, there 
is no more danger from your incompetency, 
should it manifest itself on the road, than might 
arise from its display in the ring, but with your 
horse it is another matter. Having the whole 
world before him, why not, he will meditate, 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 51 

speed forth into space, and escape from the 
hateful creature who jerks his head so cause- 
lessly, making him sigh wearily for the days of 
his unbroken colthood ? He could endure it 
within doors, because he has noticed that his 
tormentor gives place to another every hour, and 
pain may be borne when it is not monotonous; 
but he remembers that there is no limit to the 
time during which one human being may impel 
him along an open road, and he also remembers 
some very pretty friskings, delightful to him- 
self, but disconcerting to his rider, and he may 
perform some of them. 

Even if he should, he would not unseat a rider 
well accustomed to school work, but you ! You 
actually rose in the saddle three times in succes- 
sion, the other day, and where were your elbows 
and where were your feet when you ceased ris- 
ing, and long before your steady, quiet mount 
understood that you desired him to walk ? 

Your master smiles indulgently when you 
announce that this is your last practice lesson, 
and says : " Very well, you shall ride Charlie, 
to-day, at least for a little while, until some 
others come in." He himself mounts, moves 



52 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

off a pace or two, one of the assistant masters 
puts you in the saddle, and before the groom 
lets Master Charlie's head go, your master says, 
easily : " Leave his reins pretty long, especially 
the right one. Put your left knee close against 
the pommel ; don't try to rise until I tell you. 
Ready. Now." 

You feel as if you were in a transformation 
scene at the theatre. The windows of the ring 
seem to run into one another, and at very short 
intervals you catch a glimpse in the mirror of 
a young woman, in a familiar looking Norfolk 
jacket, sitting with her elbows as far behind her 
as if held there by the Austrian plan of running 
a broomstick in front of the arms and behind 
the waist. 

On and on ! You earnestly wish to stop, but 
are ashamed to say so. Close at your right 
hand, pace for pace with you, rides your master, 
keeping up an unbroken fire of brief ejacula- 
tion : " Hands a little lower ! Arms close to 
the side ! Shoulders square ! Square ! Draw 
your right shoulder backward and upward ! 
Now down with your right elbow ! Don't pull 
on the right rein ! Don't lift your hands ! 
You'll make him go faster ! " 



IN THE BIDIKG-SCHOOL. 53 

" I like this kind of trot," you say sweetly. 
"It's easier than the other kind." 

" It isn't a trot ; it's a canter," says your mas- 
ter, with a suspicion of dryness in his voice, 
"but you may make him trot if you like. 
Shorten both reins, especially the left. Whoa, 
Charlie ! Wait until I say ' Now,' before you do 
it ! Shorten both reins, especially the left ; 
that will keep him to the wall. Then extend 
your left arm a little, and draw back your right ; 
draw back your left and extend your right, and 
repeat until he comes down to a trot. That 
saws his mouth, and gives him something beside 
scampering to occupy his mind. Now we will 
start up again at a canter. Lengthen your 
reins, but remember to shorten them when you 
want to trot." 

" Shall I tell you beforehand, so that you may 
have time to make your horse trot, too ? " you 
ask. , 

Esmeralda^ you must have been reading one 
of those sweet books on etiquette which advise 
the horsewoman to be considerate of her com- 
panions. How much notice do you think your 
master requires to "make his horse trot"? 



54 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

You will blush over the memory of that ques- 
tion next year, although now you feel that you 
have been very ladylike, even very Christian, in 
putting it, for have you not shown that your 
temper is unruffled and that you are thinking 
how to make others happy ? 

Your master answers that his horse may be 
trusted, and that if you prefer to take your own 
time to change from the canter to the trot, 
rather than to wait for him to say, " Now," you 
may do so. And then the canter begins again, 
and, after a round or two, you try the mouth- 
sawing process, doing it very well, for it is an 
ugly little trick at best, rarely found necessary 
by an accomplished rider, and beginners seldom 
fail to succeed in it at the very first attempt. If 
it were pretty and graceful, it would be more 
difficult. Down to the trot comes the obedient 
Charles, and up you go one, two, three, four ! and 
down you come, until you really expect to find 
yourself and the saddle in the tan between the 
two halves of your horse. 

Of what can the creature's spinal column 
be made, to bear such a succession of blows j 
You begin by pitying the horse, but after 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



about half a circuit, you think that human 
beings have their little troubles also, and you 
feel a suspicion of sarcasm in your master's 
gentle : " You need not do French trot any- 
longer, unless you like. It will be easier for 
you to rise." 

You give a frantic hop in your stirrup at the 
wrong minute, and begin a series of jumps in 
which you and the horse rise on alternate beats, 
by which means your saddle receives twice as 
much pounding as at first, and then you have 
breath enough left to gasp " Stop," and in a 
second you are walking along quietly, and your 
master is saying in a matter-of-fact way : " You 
would better keep your left heel down all the 
time, and turn the toe toward the horse's side 
and keep your right foot and leg close to the 
saddle below the knee ; swing yourself up and 
down as a man does ; don't drop like a lump of 
lead." 

" Like a snowflake," you murmur, for you 
fancy that you have a pretty wit like Will 
Honeycomb. 

"Not at all," says your master. "The snow- 
flake comes down because it must, and comes to 



56 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

stay. You come because you choose, and come 
down to rise again instantly. You must keep 
your right shoulder back, and your hands on a 
level with your elbows, and you must turn the 
corners, not let your horse turn them as he 
pleases — but more pupils are coming now and 
I must give you another horse. You may have 
Billy Buttons." The change is effected, the 
other pupils begin their lessons, and you and 
Billy walk deliberately about in the centre of 
the ring. 

At first he keeps moderately near the wall, 
but after a time you find that the circle de- 
scribed by his footsteps has grown smaller, and 
that he apparently fancies himself walking around 
a rather small tree. Your master rides up as 
you are pulling and jerking your left rein in the 
endeavor to come nearer to the wall, and says, 
"Try Billy's canter. I'll take a round with 
you. Strike him on the shoulder, and when 
you want him to trot, shorten your reins and 
touch him on the flank. Those are the signals 
which he minds best. Now ! Canter." 

You remember of having heard of a " canter 
like a rocking-chair." Charlie had it, but you 



IN THE RIDING- SCHOOL. 57 

were too inexperienced to know it, but bad 
riders long ago deprived Billy of any likeness to 
a rocking-chair. He knows that if he should 
let himself go freely, you would come near to 
making him rear by pulling on the reins, and so 
he goes along "one, two, three, one, two, three," 
deliberately, and you feel and look, as you hear 
an unsympathetic gazer in the gallery remark, 
"like a pea in a hot skillet." You prided your- 
self on keeping your temper unruffled under 
the wise criticism of your master, but in truth 
you did not really believe him. You said to 
yourself that he was too particular, and you 
even thought of informing him that he must 
not expect perfection immediately, but this 
piece of impudence, spoken by a person who, 
for aught that you can tell, does not know Billy 
from a clotheshorse, convinces you instantly, 
and you decide to canter no more, but to trot, 
and so you " shorten your reins and strike him 
on the flank." 

As you shorten the right rein more than the 
left, and as your whip falls as lightly as if you 
meant the blow for yourself, Billy goes to the 
centre of the ring, but you jerk him to the wall, 



58 IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 

and in time, trot he does. But your left foot 
swings now forward and now outward, and you 
cannot rise. The regular, pulsating count by 
which a clever girl is moving like a machine, 
irritates you, and you tell another beginner, 
"They really ought to let us rise on the alter- 
nate beats at first, until we are more accustomed 
to the motion," and she agrees with you, and 
both of you try this, which might be called trot- 
ting on the American pupil plan, but even the 
calm Billy manages to take about six steps be- 
tween what you regard as the "alternate beats," 
and at last breaks into a canter, and you hear your- 
self ordered, very peremptorily, to "sit down." 
You obey, but begin the pea in the skillet per- 
formance again, and at last you tell your master 
that you will not try to trot any more, but 
would like to know all about managing the 
reins. 

"And then," you say, looking as wise as the 
three Gothamites of the nursery song, " even if 
I should not be able to trot long, and should 
fall behind my friends on the road, I shall have 
perfect control of my horse, and can walk on 
until they miss me and turn back for me. Will 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 59 

you please tell me all the ways of holding the 
reins ?" 

Your master does not laugh ; the joke is too 
venerable, and he feels awe-struck as he hears 
it, so ancient does it seem. 

" If you take your reins in one hand," he 
says, " an easy way is to hold the snaffle on 
your ring finger, and the left curb outside the 
little finger, with the right curb between the 
middle and fore fingers. Then, when you want 
to use both hands, put your right little finger 
and ring finger between the right curb and 
right snaffle, and hold your hands at exactly even 
distances from your body, and at exactly even 
distances from your horse's head, with the two 
reins firmly nipped by the thumbs resting on 
the top of the fore-fingers. This is the way 
recommended in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 
in Colonel Dodge's 'Patroclus and Penelope,' 
and you will see it in many very good hunting 
pictures. 

" Colonel Anderson, in his ' On Horseback,' 
recommends dividing the curb reins by the 
little finger of the left hand and the snaffle 
reins by the middle finger, carrying the ends 



60 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

up through the hand, and holding them by the 
thumb. Mr. Mead, in his 'Horsemanship for 
Women,' mentions this hold, but prefers taking 
the curb on the ring finger, and the snaffle out- 
side the little finger, and between the forefinger 
and middle finger. This hold is used in the 
British army, and it is convenient in school, 
because if it be desirable to drop the curb in 
order to ride with the snaffle only, you can do it 
by dropping your ring finger, and, if your horse 
be moderately quiet, can knot the curb rein and 
let it lie on his neck. Besides, it makes the 
snaffle a little tighter than the curb, and that is 
held to be a good thing in England. An Eng- 
lish soldier is prone to accuse American cavalry- 
men of riding too much on the curb, and by the 
way, I have heard English soldiers assert that 
they were taught the second method, but it was 
a riding master formerly in the Queen's service 
who told me that the third was preferred. 

" M. de Bussigny, in his little ' Handbook for 
Horsewomen,' gives the preference to crossing 
the reins, the curb coming outside the little 
finger and between the ring and middle finger, 
and the snaffle between the little and ring fin- 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 61 

gers and the middle finger and forefinger. I 
hold my own in that way when training a horse, 
but it is better for you to use both hands on 
the reins, and he would tell you so. You are 
more likely to sit square ; it gives you twice 
the hold, and then, too, you know where your 
right hand is, and are not waving it about in 
the air, or devising queer ways of holding your 
whip. Now your hour is over, and I will take 
you off your horse. Wait until he is perfectly 
still, and the groom has him by the head. Now 
drop your reins ; let me take off the foot straps ; 
take your foot out of the stirrup ; turn in the 
saddle ; put one hand on my shoulder and one 
on my elbow, and slip down as lightly as you 
can." 

You glance at the clock, perceive that you 
have been in the saddle almost an hour and a 
half, and murmur an apology. "Don't mind," 
is the encouraging answer. " As long as a 
pupil does not complain and call us stingy when 
we make her dismount, we do not say much. 
But are you really going on the road, Monday, 
Miss Esmeralda?" "Yes, I am," you answer. 
" Ah, well," he says, a little regretfully, " don't 



62 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

forget, then. Hold on with your right knee 
and sit down for the canter." 

What shall you do by way of exercise before 
Monday ? Practise all the old movements, a 
little of each one at a time, and take two 
lengths of ribbon as wide as an ordinary rein, 
or, better still, two leather straps, and fasten 
one to the knobs on the two sides of a door 
and run the other through the keyhole. Call 
the knob straps the snaffle reins, and the key- 
hole straps the curb, and, sitting near enough 
to let them lie in your lap, practise picking them 
up and adjusting them with your eyes shut. 
When you can do it quickly and neatly, try and 
see with how little exertion you can sway the 
door to left and right, and then practise holding 
these dummy reins while standing on one foot 
and executing the movement used in trotting. 
If the door move by a hair's breadth, it will 
show you that you are pulling too much, and 
you must remember that your hold on your 
horse's mouth gives you greater leverage than 
you have on the door, and then, perhaps, you 
will pity the poor beast a little now and then. 

What is that ? Your master treated you as 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 63 

if you were an ignorant girl ? So you are, dear, 
and even if you were not, if you knew all that 
there is in all the books, you might still be a 
bad horsewoman, because you might not know 
enough to use your knowledge. You don't 
care, and you feel very well, and are very glad 
that you went ? Of course, that is the invaria- 
ble cry ! And you mean to take some more 
lessons if you find that you really need them ? 
Then leave your skirt in the dressing-room 
locker ! You will come back from your ride a 
wiser, but not a sadder, girl. One cannot be 
sad on horseback. 



IN THE EIDIXGSCHOOL. 




V. 

— Pad, pad, pad ! like a thing that was mad, 
My chestnut broke away. 

Thombury. 

ISMERALDA was puzzled when she re- 
turned from her first riding party. 
In the morning, looking very pretty 
in her borrowed riding habit, her 
English hat with the hunting guard made ne- 
cessary by the Back Bay breezes, her brown 
gauntlets, and the one scarlet carnation in her 
button-hole, she drove to the riding-school, 
where she had agreed to meet Theodore and 
her other friends, not like Mrs. Gilpin, lest all 
should say that she was proud, but because her 
master had promised to lend her one of the 
school horses, to put her in the saddle and to 
adjust her stirrup, and because she secretly felt 
that she would better give herself every possi- 
ble advantage in what, as it came nearer, assumed 
the aspect of a trial rather than a pleasure. 
Beholding Ronald, the promised horse, se- 



W THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 65 

verely correct in his road saddle, and looking 
immensely tall as he stood on the stable floor, 
she inly applauded her own wisdom, strongly 
doubting that Theodore's unpractised arm would 
have tossed her into her place as lightly as the 
master's, and she was secretly overjoyed when 
the master himself mounted and joined the 
party with her, making its number nine ; Es- 
meralda herself, the graduate of three lessons ; 
Theodore, all his life accustomed to ride any- 
thing calling itself a horse, but making no pre- 
tensions to mastery of the equestrian science ; 
the lawyer, understood, on his own authority, 
to be well informed in everything ; the society 
young lady, erect, precise, self-satisfied ; the 
Texan, riding with apparent laziness, his hands 
rather high and seldom quiet, but not to be 
shaken from his seat ; the beauty, languid and 
secretly discontented because her horse was " in- 
tended for a brunette, and a ridiculous mount 
for a blonde " ; Versatilia, who had " taken up 
riding a little," and the cavalryman, calm, quiet, 
and fraternally regarded by the master, as he 
reviewed the little flock from the back of a 
horse which had been offered to him as the para- 



IX THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



gon of its species, and for which and its kind, 
as he announced after riding a square or two, 
he " was not paying a cent a carload." 

" It is a lovely horse," said the beauty. " It 
is such a beautiful color. But men never care 
for color." 

" Good color is a good thing, undoubtedly," 
said the master, " but a beautiful horse is a 
good horse, not necessarily an animal which 
would look well in a painted landscape, because 
its color would harmonize with the hue of the 
trees." 

" She is a beautiful girl, isn't she," said Es- 
meralda, looking admiringly at the beauty, who, 
having just remembered Tennyson's line about 
swaying the rein with flying finger tips, was ex- 
ecuting some movements which made her horse 
raise his ears to listen for the cause of such 
conduct, and then shake his head in mild disap- 
proval. 

" What do I care for a pretty girl ? " de- 
manded the master. " Pretty rider is what I 
want to see, and ' pretty rider ' is ' good rider.' 
Wait until that girl trots three minutes or so, 
and see whether or not she is pretty." 



ZAT THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 67 

The party went through the streets at a rapid 
walk, now and then meeting a horse-car, now 
and then a stray wagon, but invariably allowed 
to take its own way, with very little regard for 
the rule of the road. The American who drives, 
whatever may be his social station, admires the 
courage of the woman who rides, but he is 
firmly convinced that she does not understand 
horses, and gives her all the space available 
wherein to disport herself. 

" Are we right in placing the ladies on the 
left ? " asked Theodore, turning to the master. 

" Of course," cried the lawyer. "We follow 
the English rule, and the left was the place of 
safety for the lady in the days when English 
equestrianism was born. Travelers took the 
left of the road, and this placed the cavalier be- 
tween his lady and any possible danger." 

" And in the United States they take the 
right, and she is between him and any possible 
danger," said the master. " It is the custom, 
but it seems illogical and foolish. True, it re- 
moves any danger that the lady may be crushed 
between her own horse and her escort's, but 
who protects her from any passing car or car- 



W THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



riage, and in case of a runaway what can her 
escort, his left hand occupied with his own 
reins, do to aid her with hers, or to disentangle 
her foot from the stirrup or her habit from the 
pommels in case she is thrown ? Can he snatch 
her from the saddle, after the manner of one of 
Joaquin Miller's young men ? The truth is 
that since the rule of the road is 'keep to the 
right,' the rule of the saddle should be ' sit on 
the right,' but with a lady on his bridle hand 
the horseman could not be at his best as an es- 
cort, even then. 

" It is one of the many little absurdities in 
American customs ; the old story of the sur- 
vival of the two buttons on the back of the 
coat, and, by the way, Miss Esmeralda, the two 
buttons on the back of your habit are out of 
place, not because of your tailor's fault, but 
because of yours. They should make a line at 
right angles with your horse's spinal column. 
Draw yourself back a little, until you can feel 
the pommel under your right knee. 'Draw' 
yourself back ; don't lean, but keep yourself 
perfectly erect, your back perpendicular to your 
horse's. Sit a little to the left ; lean a little to 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 69 

the right. Let your left shoulder go forward a 
little, your right shoulder backward. Now you 
are exactly right. Try to remember your sen- 
sations at this minute, in order to be able to 
reproduce them. When I say ' Careful,' pass 
yourself in review and endeavor to feel where 
you are wrong. But," addressing the cavalry- 
man, who was in advance with Versatilia, " is 
this procession a funeral ?" 

"Not exactly," said the cavalryman, and 
then, after a backward glance, he cried, in the 
fashion of a military riding-school master : 
" Pr-r-re-pare to tr-r-r-ot — Trot ! " 

Esmeralda remembered to shorten her reins, 
and resigned herself to the Fates, who were pro- 
pitious, enabling her to catch the cadence of 
the trot, and to rise to it during the few seconds 
before the cavalryman slackened rein. " Care- 
ful," said the master, and she shook herself into 
place, eliciting a hearty " Good ! " from him. 
"Look at your pretty girl," he growled softly, 
but savagely, and truly the beauty solicited 
attention. Slipping to the left in her saddle, 
one elbow pointing toward Cambridgeport and 
the other toward Dorchester, her right foot vis- 



70 IN THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 

ible through her habit, and her left all but out 
of the stirrup, she was attractive no longer, and 
to complete the master's disgust she ejaculated : 
"My hair is coming down ! " 

"Better bring a nurse and a ladies' maid for 
her," he muttered to Esmeralda, confidentially. 
" Hairpins in your saddle pocket ? Well, you 
are a sensible girl," and he rode forward with 
the little packet, giving it to the lawyer to pass 
to the unfortunate young woman. But here 
arose a little difficulty. The space between the 
lawyer's horse and the beauty's as they stood 
was too wide to allow him to lay the parcel in 
her outstretched fingers. The Texan, on her 
right hand, had enough to do to keep her horse 
and his own absolutely motionless that she 
might not be thrown by any unexpected motion 
of either animal. Versatilia exclaimed in re- 
monstrance, " Don't leave me," when the caval- 
ryman said, "Wait a second ; I'll come and give 
them to her;" the master sat quiet and smiling. 

"Why don't you dismount and give them to 
her ? " cried Theodore, and was out of his saddle, 
had placed the parcel in her hand, and was back 
in his place again before either of the other three 
men could speak. 



IN THE RIDING- SCHOOL. 



"Very well done," said the master, approv- 
ingly, "but not the right thing to do. Never 
leave your saddle without good cause, and never 
leave your horse loose for a moment. Yes, I saw 
that you retained your hold of the reins ; I was 
talking at Miss Esmeralda." 

" Why didn't you make your horse step side- 
wise ? " he asked the lawyer. 

"I can't. He won't. See there ! " 

Sundry pulls, precisely like those which he 
might have used had he intended the horse to 
turn, a pair of absolutely motionless legs, and 
an unused whip were accepted as evidence that 
the lawyer's "I can't" was perfectly true, and 
the master and the cavalryman exchanged com- 
prehending glances as the latter said: "Well, 
don't mind. An eminent authority announced 
after the Boston horse show of 1889 that high- 
school airs were of no use on the road. To 
make a horse move a step sidewise is the veriest 
little zephyr of an air, but it would have been 
of some use to you, then. Are we ready now ? 
What's that ? Dropped your whip ? " 

Up went the Texan's left heel, catching 
cleverly on the saddle as he dropped lightly to 



72 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

the right, after the fashion of the Arab, the 
Moor, the Apache, of all the nations which ride 
for speed and for fighting rather than for leap- 
ing and hunting, and he caught the whip from 
the ground and was back in his place in a 
twinkling. The ladies were unmoved, because 
inappreciative ; the lawyer looked savagely en- 
vious, the cavalryman and the master approving, 
and Theodore, frankly admiring, but no one said 
anything, the little cavalcade rearranged itself, 
and once more moved on at a footpace until an 
electric car appeared. 

" Ronald is like a rock," said the master, " and 
you need not be afraid, but I'll take this beast 
along in advance. He will shy, or do some out- 
rageous thing, and he has a mouth as sensitive 
as the Mississippi's, and no more." 

The " beast" did indeed sidle and fret and 
prance, and manifest a disposition to hasten to 
drown himself in the reservoir, beyond the reach 
of self-propelling vehicles, and he repeated the 
performance at the sight of two other cars, 
although evidently less alarmed than at first, 
but the fourth car was in charge of a kindly- 
disposed driver, who came to a dead stop, out 
of pure amiability. 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 73 

This was too much for the " beast" to en- 
dure ; a moving house he was beginning to 
regard as tolerable, but a house which stopped 
short and glared at him with all its windows 
was more than horse nature could endure, and 
he started for the next county to institute an 
inquiry as to whether such actions were to be 
allowed, but found himself forced to stop, and 
not altogether comfortable, while the master 
cried good-naturedly : " Go along and take care 
of your car. I'll take care of my horse ! " 

" More than some other folks can do," said 
the driver, with a quiet grin at the lawyer, whose 
angry, " Here, what are you doing ! " shouted to 
his plunging steed, had brought all the women 
in the car to the front, to explain to one another 
that "that man was abusing his horse, poor 
thing." 

The car glided off, and Versatilia turned to 
look at it; her horse stumbled slightly, jerking 
her wrists sharply, and but for the cavalryman's 
quick shifting of the reins to his right hand and 
his strong grasp of her reins with his left, she 
might have been in danger. 

" Never look back," lectured the master. 



74 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

Esmeralda was his pupil, and he would have 
taken the whole centennial quadrille and all the 
cabinet ladies to point his moral, had he seen 
them making equestrian blunders. "Where 
your horse has been, where he is, is the past. 
Look to the future, straight before you." 

" The cavalryman looked back just now," 
Esmeralda ventured to say. 

" Yes, but he turned his horse very slightly 
to do it, and he may do almost anything, because 
he has a perfect seat, and is a good horseman." 

" Suppose I hear something or somebody 
coming up behind me ? " 

" If it have any intelligence, it will not hurt 
you. If it have none, looking will do you no 
good. Turn out to the right as far as you 
can and look to the front harder than ever, so 
as to be ready to guide your horse and to 
avoid any obstacles in case he should start 
to run. What is the trouble with the ladies, 
now?" 

"O, dear!" cried the beauty to the society 
young lady, "your horse." 

"What's the matter with him?" asked the 
other, still very stately and not turning. 



IN THE B ID IXG- SCHOOL. 



" Oh ! the dreadful creature has caught his 
tail on my horse's bit," said the beauty. 

"Then you'd better take your horse's bit 
away," retorted the other. " My horse's eyes 
are not at that end of him, and he can't be 
expected to look at his tail." 

"And you may be kicked," added the Texan. 
" Check him a little ; there ! We ought not to 
be so close together, and we ought to be moving 
a little, I think. Shall we trot again ? " 

Everybody assented, the cavalryman and Ver- 
satilia set off, the others followed as best they 
might, the beauty " going to pieces " in a minute 
or two, according to the master,the society young 
lady stiffening visibly, losing the cadence of the 
trot very soon, but making no outcry as she was 
tossed about uncomfortably, and not bending 
her head to look at her reins, as Versatilia did. 

"There's the advantage of training in other 
things," said the master. " She's a good dancer 
and a good amateur actress, and she is control- 
ling herself as she would on a ballroom floor, 
and remembering the spectators as she would 
on the stage. She's no rider, but is perfectly 
selfish and self-possessed, and she will cheat her 



76 IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 

escort into thinking that she is one. Glad she's 
no pupil of mine, however ! She always leads 
the conversation, one of her friends told me the 
other day. That is to say, she is always acting. I 
can't teach such a person anything ; nobody can. 
She can teach herself, as she can think of her- 
self and love herself, but she can't go outside of 
herself — and the lawyer will find it out after he 
has married her." 

Esmeralda and Theodore stared in astonish- 
ment. 

" Walk," said the master, noticing that his 
pupil looked too warm for comfort, and the 
three allowed the others to go on without them. 
"Careful," he added, and Esmeralda, adjusting 
herself studiously, asked: "Is it really easier 
to ride on the road than it is in the school ? It 
seems so." 

" It is a little, especially if the corners of the 
ring are so near together that the horse goes in 
a circle, for then the rider has to lean to the 
right, while on the road she may sit straight. 
Give me the right kind of a horse for my pupil 
to ride, and I would as lief give lessons on the 
road as anywhere, but it is not so well for the 



IX THE BIDIXG- SCHOOL. 



pupil, whose attention is distracted by a thousand 
things, and who learns less in a year than she 
would in a month in school. There is no finish 
about the riding of a woman so taught. She 
may be pretty, as you said of one of your friends, 
she may be self-possessed, like the other, but 
she will betray her ignorance every moment. 
You were surprised just now at what I said of 
the society young lady. A woman can't cheat 
an old riding-master, after he has seen her in 
the saddle. He knows her and her little ways 
by heart. Shall we start up ? Ah !" 

Ronald, the "steady as a rock," was off and 
away at a canter ; Theodore was starting to 
gallop in pursuit, but was sharply ordered back 
by the master, who went on himself at a rather 
slow canter, ready to break into a gallop if his 
pupil were thrown, but keeping out of Ronald's 
hearing, lest he should be further startled by 
finding himself followed. There was a clear 
stretch of road before her, and Esmeralda sat 
down as firmly as possible, brought her left knee 
up against the pommel, clung firmly with her 
right knee, held her hands low and her thumbs 
as firm as possible, and thought very hard. 



78 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

" Very soon," she said to herself, " I shall be 
thrown and dragged, and what a figure I shall 
be going home, if I'm not killed ! But I sha'n't 
be! I shall be ridiculous, and that's worse." 
Here she swept by the riding party, but as Ver- 
satilia and the beauty turned to look at her, and 
forgot to control their horses, the cavalryman 
and the Texan had to do it for them, and could do 
nothing for Esmeralda except to shout "Whoa," 
which Ronald very properly disregarded. The 
master came up, and the society young lady 
addressed him with, "Very silly of her to try to 
exhibit herself so, isn't it ?" 

" That's no exhibition ; that's a runaway," 
said the master grimly. " She's doing well too, 
poor girl," and he and Theodore went on after 
the flying rider. 

Two or three carriages, the riders staring with 
horror ; a pedestrian or two, innocently wonder- 
ing why a lady should be on the road alone ; a 
small boy whistling shrilly ; these were all the 
spectators of Esmeralda's flight. She felt deso- 
late and deserted, and yet sure that it was best 
that she should be alone, since the master could 
overtake her if he would, and she wondered if 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 79 

she should be very seriously injured when thrown 
at last, but all the time she was talking to Ronald 
in a voice carefully kept at a low pitch, and her 
hands were held with a steadiness utterly new 
to them, and the good horse went on regularly, 
but faster and faster. 

" That isn't a real runaway," said the master 
to himself. " Ah, I see ! her whip is down and 
strikes him at every stride, and so she uncon- 
sciously urges him forward. If there were a 
side road here, I'd gallop around and meet her, 
or if there were fields on either side, I'd leap 
the fence and make a circuit and cut her off, 
but through this place, with banks like a rail- 
way cutting on each side, there is nothing to 
do." 

Swifter and swifter! Esmeralda began to feel 
weaker, thought of Theodore, and of some other 
things of which she never told even him, said a 
little prayer, but all the time remembered her 
master's injunctions, and kept her place firmly, 
waiting for the final, and, as she believed, inevi- 
table crash, when lo ! she saw that just in front 
of her lay a long piece of half-mended road, full 
of ugly little stones, and she turned Ronald on 



80 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

it, with a triumphant, " See how you like that, 
sir," and then sawed his mouth. In half a minute 
he was walking. In another the master was 
beside her with words of approval. Theodore 
galloped up, pale and anxious, and between 
the two she had quite as much praise as was good 
for her, and, being told of the position of the 
whip, found her confidence in Ronald restored. 

"But you should never start up hastily," said 
the master. " Take time for everything, and 
check your horse the instant he goes faster 
than you mean to have him. You are a good 
girl, and you shall not be scolded, or snubbed, 
either," he muttered, as the party came up, the 
cavalryman and the Texan loud in praise, the 
other four clamorous with questions and advice. 

"You look quite dishevelled," said the society 
young lady agreeably. 

"Ladies often do after they have been on the 
road a little while. Excuse me, but one of your 
skirt buttons is unfastened," said the master, 
and, not knowing how to pass her reins into her 
right hand so as to use her left to repair the 
accident, the society young lady was effectually 
silenced, while the master, holding Esmeralda's 



IJST THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 81 

horse, made her wipe her face, arrange the curly 
locks flying about her ears, readjust her hat, and 
generally smooth her plumage, until she was once 
more comfortable. 

After a little, the master proposed a trot up 
the hill, and instructed Esmeralda to lean for- 
ward as her horse climbed upward, " If you 
should have to trot down hill, lean back a little, 
and keep your reins short," he said. 

The lawyer and the society young lady, essay- 
ing to descend the next hill brilliantly, barely 
escaped going over their horses' heads, and all 
four ladies were glad when they perceived that 
they were going homeward. 

" I like it," Esmeralda said to the master, 
"but I wish I knew more, and I'm going to 
learn, and I see now that three lessons isn't 
enough, even for a beginning." 

" I know a girl who took seventeen lessons 
and then was thrown," said the society young 
lady. " Native ability is better than teaching. 
I don't believe any master could make a rider 
of you, Esmeralda." 

" A good teacher can make a rider of any one 
who will study," said the master, to whom she 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



looked for approval. " As for seventeen lessons, 
they are better than seven, of course, but they 
are not much, after all. How many dancing 
lessons, music lessons, elocution lessons have 
you taken ? More than seventeen ? I thought 
so. Here's a railroad bridge, but no train com- 
ing. Had one been approaching, and had there 
been no chance to cross before it came, I should 
have made you turn Ronald the other way, Miss 
Esmeralda, so that if he ran he would run out 
of what he thinks is danger, and not into it. 
And now for an easy little trot home." 

An easy little trot it was, and Esmeralda, left 
at her own door, where a groom waited to take 
her horse to the stable, was happy, but puzzled. 
" Theodore," she cried, as soon as he appeared 
in the evening, "did you ask the master to go 
with us ? He treated me just as he does in 
school." 

" Yes, I did," said Theodore boldly. " I was 
afraid to take charge of you alone. That was 
a 'road lesson.' " 

" You — you — exasperating thing ! " cried 
Esmeralda. "But then, you were sensible." 

"That's tautology," said Theodore. 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 




VI. 

A solitary horseman might have been seen. 

G. P. R.James. 

SND so you are feeling very meek after 
your road lesson and your runaway, 
Esmeralda, and are a perfect Uriah 
Heep for 'umbleness, and are, hence- 
forth and forever, going to believe every sylla- 
ble that your master utters, and to obey every 
command the instant that it is given, and — 
there, that will do ! And you are going to take 
one private lesson so as to learn a few little 
things before you display your progress before 
any other pupils again ? One private lesson ! 
Did your master advise it ? N-no, but he con- 
sented to give it, when you had persuaded him 
that it would be best for you ? When you had 
persuaded him ? Behold the American pupil's 
definition of obedience : to follow commands 
dictated by herself ! However, there is no use 
in trying to eradicate the ideas bequeathed and 



84 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

fostered by a hundred years of national self- 
government, so go to the school at the hour 
appointed by your master, an hour when "no 
other pupils are expected. 

The horses pace very solemnly around the 
great ring, and you adjust yourself with won- 
derful dignity, feeling that your master must 
perceive by your improved carriage and by the 
general perfection of your aspect that your ex- 
quisite timidity and charming shyness have 
been responsible for your awkwardness in 
former lessons, when other pupils were pres- 
ent, but now he leaves your side and takes a 
position in the centre of the ring, whence he 
addresses you thus : 

" Keep your reins even ! The right ones are 
too short, the left too long ! Stop him ! That 
is not stopping him ! He took two steps for- 
ward after he checked himself. Go forward, 
and try again when I tell you. Stop ! Not so 
hard, not so hard ! You are making him back ! 
Extend your arms forward ! There ! A little 
more, and you would have made him rear ! 
Whoa ! Wo-ho ! Now listen ! Not so ! Don't 
drop your reins in that way, and sit so care- 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 85 

lessly that a start would throw you from your 
place ! Never leave your horse to himself a 
second ! Sit as well as you can, look between 
your horse's ears and listen ! Always use some 
discretion in choosing your place to stop. Do 
not try to stop when turning a corner, even to 
avoid a danger, but rather change your direc- 
tion. In the ring, never stop on the track, un- 
less in obedience to your master's order, but 
turn out into the centre, but when you have 
once told your horse to stop, make him do it, 
for his sake, as well as for your own, if you have 
to spend an hour in the effort. And it will be 
an hour well spent, so that you need not lose 
patience, and if you do lose it, do not allow 
your horse to perceive it. 

"To stop, you should press your leg and your 
whip against your horse's sides ; lift your hands 
a very little, and turn them in toward your body, 
lean back and draw yourself up. There are six 
things to do : two to your horse, one on each 
side of him, two with your hands and two with 
your body, and you must do them almost simul- 
taneously. Unless you do the first two, your 
horse will surely take a forward step or two 



8Q IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

after stopping, in order to bring himself into a 
comfortable position. If you do not cease do- 
ing the last four the moment that your horse 
has stopped, he may rear or he may back sev- 
eral steps, and he should never do that, but 
should await an order for each step. Now, do 
you remember the six things ? Very well ! Go 
forward ! Stop ! Did I tell you to do anything 
with your arms ? No ? Well, why did you 
bring your elbows back of your waist, then ? 
It is allowable to do that — to save your life, 
but not to stop your horse. Bend your hands 
at the wrist, turning the knuckles, if need be, 
until they are at right angles with their ordinary 
position, so that the back of your hand is toward 
your horse's ears, but keep the thumb upper- 
most all the time. 

" Now, think it over a moment ! Go forward ! 
Stop ! Pretty well ! Go on ! Don't lean for- 
ward too much when you start, and sit up again 
instantly, 

" Now walk around the school once, and go 
into all the corners. Stop ! You stopped pretty 
well, but you leaned back too far, and you did 
not draw yourself up at all. Mind, you draw 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 87 

1 yourself ' up ; you don't try to pull the bit up 
through the corners of your horse's mouth. 
What I wanted to say was that a turn is just 
half a stop as far as your hands, leg and whip 
are concerned. To turn to the right, use your 
right hand and whip, but keep your left leg and 
hand steady ; to turn to the left, use your left 
leg and hand and keep your whip and whip 
hand steady. When you turn to the right, 
lean to the right instead of backward ; ' lean,' 
not twist to the right, and turn your head to the 
right so as to see what may be there. 

" If you were on the road, and did not turn 
your head before going down a side street, you 
might knock over a bicycle rider, and thereby 
hurt your horse, which would be a pity," he 
says, with apparent indifference as to the bicy- 
cle rider's possible injuries. " Nov/ go around 
the school again. Left shoulder forward ! 
Right shoulder back ! Sit to the right ! Lean 
to the left ! I told you to sit to the left, the 
other day ? And that is the reason that I have 
to tell you to sit to the right to-day. You over- 
do it. Miss Esmeralda, if I were talking for my 
own pleasure, I should say pretty things to you, 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



but I am talking to teach you, and when I say 
1 This is wrong ! This is wrong ! ' and again 
' This is wrong ! ' I do it for you, not for my- 
self. When your father and mother say ' This 
is wrong ; you must not do it, or you will be 
sorry,' you do not look at them as if you 
thought them unreasonable — or, I trust that 
you do not," he adds, mentally. " Heaven 
only knows what an American girl may do 
when anybody says, ' You must not ' to her. 

"Now," he goes on aloud, "it is the same 
with your teacher; he says 'You are wrong,' 
lest you should be sorry by and by, and he is 
patient and says it many times, as your father 
and mother do, and he says it every time that 
you do anything wrong, unless you do so many 
wrong things at once that he cannot speak of 
each one. Now you shall turn to the right, 
and remember that a turn is half a stop. Go 
across the school and then turn to the left ! 
Keep a firm hold on your right rein now so as 
to keep your horse close to the wall. Where, 
where are your toes ? It was not necessary to 
make you turn so as to see your right foot 
through your riding habit as I can now, to 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



know that they were pointing outward. Your 
right shoulder told the story by drooping for- 
ward. M. de Bussigny lays especial stress on 
this point in his manual, and you will find that 
your whole position depends more on that seem- 
ingly unimportant right foot than on many 
other things, so bend your will to holding it 
properly, close against the saddle. Walk on 
now, keeping on a straight line. If you cannot 
do it in the school, you cannot on the road, and 
many an ugly scrape against walls, horse-cars 
and other horses you will receive unless you 
can keep to the right and in a straight line. 
Now turn to the left, and go straight across 
the school. Straight ! Fix your eye on some- 
thing when you start, and ride at it with as 
much determination as if it were a fence ; now 
turn to the right again and go forward. Have 
you read Delsarte ? " 

No, you murmur to yourself, you have not 
read Delsarte, and, if you had, you do not believe 
that you could remember it or anything else 
just at present. What an endless string of 
directions ! You wish that there was another 
pupil with you to take the burden of a few of 



90 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

them ! You wish you were — oh ! anywhere. 
This is your obedience, is it, Esmeralda ? Well, 
you don't care ! This is dull ! Your horse 
thinks so, too. He gently tries the reins, and, 
finding that you offer no resistance, he decides 
to take a little exercise, and starts off at a canter, 
keeping away from the wall most piously, avoid- 
ing the corners as if some Hector might be in 
ambuscade there to catch and tame him, and 
rushing on faster and faster, as you do nothing 
in particular to stop him. 

" Lean to the right," cries the master, and 
you obey, but the horse continues his canter, 
almost a gallop now, when suddenly your wits 
return to you, you draw back first the right 
hand and then the left, he begins to trot, and 
by some miracle you begin to rise, and continue 
to do it, you do not know exactly how, feeling 
a delight in it, an exhilarating, exultant sensa- 
tion as if flying. " Keep your right leg close 
to the saddle below the knee and turn your toes 
in ! " You obey, and even remember to press 
your left knee to the saddle also and to keep 
your heel down. " Don't rise to the left ! Rise 
straight ! Your horse is circling to the right, 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 91 

and you must lean to the right to rise straight ! 
Take him into the corners so that he will move 
on a straight line, and you can rise straight and 
be as much at ease as if on the road. Whoa ! 
Now, don't change your position, but look at 
yourself ! You did not shorten your reins when 
you began to trot, and, if your horse had stum- 
bled, you could not have aided him to regain 
his balance. Had you shortened them properly, 
you could, by sitting down, using your leg and 
whip lightly and turning your hands toward your 
body, have brought him down to a walk without 
hurling yourself forward against the pommel in 
that fashion. Now, adjust yourself and your 
reins, and start forward once more," and you 
obey, and are beginning to flatter yourself that 
your master does not know that your canter was 
accidental, when he warns you against allowing 
a horse to do anything unbidden. 

" You should have stopped him at once," he 
says. " He will very likely try to repeat his 
little manoeuvre in a few minutes. When he 
does, check him instantly, not by your voice, 
but as you have been directed. And now, have 
you read Delsarte ? No ? If you have time, 



92 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

you might read a chapter or two with advan- 
tage, simply for the sake of learning that a 
principle underlies all attitudes. 

" He divides the body into three parts ; the 
head, torso, and legs, and he teaches that the 
first and third should act on the same line, 
while the second is in opposition to them. For 
instance, if you be standing and looking toward 
the right, your weight should rest on your right 
leg and your torso should be turned to the left. 
Neither turn should be exaggerated, but the two 
should be exactly proportioned, one to another. 

" Now for riding, your body is divided into 
three parts, your head and torso making one, your 
legs above the knee, the second, and your legs 
below the knee, the third, and you will find that 
the first and third will act together, whether you 
desire it or not. Your right foot is properly 
placed now, but turn its toes outward and up- 
ward ; you see what becomes of your right 
shoulder. Now try to make a circle to the 
right, a volte we call it, because it is best to 
become accustomed to a few French words, as 
there are really no English equivalents for many 
of the terms used in the art of equestrianism. 



IX THE RIDING- SCHOOL. 93 

" To make a volte you have only to turn to 
the right and to keep turning, going steadily 
away from the wall until opposite your starting 
point, and then regaining it by a half-circle. 
Making voltes is not only a useful exercise, 
showing your horse that you really mean to 
guide him, and teaching you to execute a move- 
ment steadily, but it affords an excellent way 
of diverting the horse's attention from the mis- 
chief which Satan is always ready to find for 
idle hoofs. Give him a few voltes and he for- 
gets his plans for setting off at a canter. Do 
you understand ? Very well. When you are 
half-way down the school try to make a volte. 
I will give you no order. Your horse would 
understand if I did, and would begin the move- 
ment himself, and you should do it unaided." 

You try the volte, and convince yourself that 
the geometry master who taught you that a 
circle was a polygon with an infinite number 
of sides was more exact and less poetical than 
you thought him in the days before the riding- 
school began to reform your judgment on many 
things. You are conscious of not making a 
respectable curve in return, and you draw a 



94 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

deep breath of disgust as you say, " That was 
very bad, wasn't it ? " 

" Not for the first time. Keep your left hand 
and leg steady, and try it again on the other 
side of the ring. Better ! Now walk around, 
and make him go into the corners, if you have 
to double your left wrist in doing it, but don't 
move your arm, and when you begin to bend 
your right wrist to turn, straighten your left, 
and remember to lean your body and turn your 
head, if you want your horse to turn his body. 
Your wrist acts on his head and keeps him in 
line ; your whip and leg bring his hind legs 
under him, but you must move your body if 
you want him to move his. 

" Now, you shall make a half volte, or shall 
* change hands,' as it is sometimes called, 
because, if you start with your left hand near- 
est the wall, you will come back to the wall 
with your right hand nearest to it ; or, to speak 
properly, ' if you start on the right hand of the 
school, you will end on the left hand.' For 
the half volte, make a half circle to the right, 
and then ride in a diagonal line to a point some 
distance back on your track, and when you are 



IN THE BIDIXG-SCBOOL. 05 

close to it make three quarters of a turn to the 
left and you will find yourself on the left of the 
school, and in a position to practise keeping 
your horse to the right. Try it, beginning 
about two thirds of the way down the long side 
of the school. Now to get back to the right 
hand, you may turn to the left across the school, 
and turn to the left again. 

" There is a better way of doing it, but that 
is enough for to-day. Walk now. Do you see 
how much better your horse carries himself, and 
how much better you carry your hands, after 
those little exercises ? Now you must try and 
imagine yourself doing them over and over 
again, to accustom your mind to them, just as 
when learning to play scales and five-finger ex- 
ercises you used to think them out while walk- 
ing. Shall you not need pictures and diagrams 
to assist you ? Not if you have as much imagi- 
nation as any horsewoman should have. Not 
if you have enough imagination to manage a 
cow, much more to enter into the feelings of 
a good horse. Pictures are invaluable to the 
stupid ; they benumb and enervate the clever, 
and transform them into apish imitators, instead 



96 /iy THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

of making them able to act from their own 
knowledge and volition. Theory will not make 
you a good rider, but a really good rider with- 
out theory is an impossibility, and your theory 
must have a deeper seat than your retinae. 
Now, you shall have a very little trot, and then 
you may walk for ten minutes, and try to do 
voltes and half voltes by yourself, asking me 
for aid if you cannot remember how to execute 
the movements. Doing them will help you to 
pass away the time when you are too tired to 
trot, and will keep you from having any dull 
moments." 

And you, Esmeralda, you naughty girl ! You 
forget all about your sulkiness half an hour ago, 
and, looking your master in the face, you say : 
" But nobody ever has dull moments in riding- 
school." There ! Finish your lesson and walk 
off to the dressing-room ; you will be trying to 
trade horses with somebody the next thing, you 
artful, flattering puss ! 



W THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



97 



VII. 



Here we are riding, she and I ! 



Browning. 




ffHAT is it now, Esmeralda ? By your 
blushing and stammering it is fairly 
evident that another of your devices 
for learning on the American plan — 
that is to say, by not studying — is in full pos- 
session of your fancy, and that again you ex- 
pect to become a horsewoman by miracle ; 
come, what is it ? A music ride ? Nell has an 
acquaintance who always rides to music, and 
asserts that it is as easy as dancing ; that the 
music "fairly lifts you out of the saddle," and 
that the pleasure of equestrian exercise is 
doubled when it is done to the sound of the 
flute, violin and bassoon, or whatever may be 
the riding- school substitutes ? 

As for lifting you out of the saddle, Esmer- 
alda, it is quite possible that music might exe- 
cute that feat, promptly and neatly, once, and 



98 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

might leave you out, were it produced suddenly 
and unexpectedly by " dot leetle Sherman band," 
and it is undoubtedly true that, were you a rider, 
music would exhilarate you, quicken your mo- 
tions, stimulate your nerves, and assist you as 
it assists a soldier when marching. It is also 
true that it will aid even you somewhat, by in- 
dicating on what step you should rise, so that 
your motions will not alternate with those of 
your horse, to your discomfiture and his disgust, 
and that thus, by mechanically executing the 
movement, you may acquire the power of see- 
ing that you are not performing it when you 
rise once a minute or thereabouts, but a music 
ride is an exercise which a wise pupil will not 
take until advised thereto by her master. Still, 
have your own way ! Why did George Wash- 
ington and the other fathers of the republic 
exist, if its daughters must be in bondage to 
common sense and expediency ? 

Borrow Nell's habit once more, for the criti- 
cism to be undergone on the road is mild com- 
pared to that of a gallery of spectators before 
whom you must repeatedly pass in review, and 
who may select you as the object of their 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 99 

especial scrutiny. Dress at home, if possible ; 
if not, go to the school early, and array yourself 
rapidly, but carefully, for there may be fifty 
riders present during the evening, and there 
will be little room to spare on the mounting- 
stand, and no minutes to waste on buttoning 
gloves, shortening skirt straps or tightening 
boot lacings. Remember all that you have been 
taught about mounting and about taking your 
reins, and think assiduously of it, with a deter- 
mination to pay no attention to the gallery. 

There will be no spectators on the mounting- 
stand, and Theodore, who will take charge of 
you in the ring, will mount before you do, and 
when you have been put in your saddle by one 
of the masters, and start, he will take his place 
on your right, nearer the centre of the ring. 
While you are walking your horses slowly about, 
turning corners carefully and never ceasing to 
control your reins, warn him that when you say, 
" Centre," he must turn out to the right in- 
stantly, that you also may do so. If possible, 
you will not pronounce the word, but will ride 
as long as the horses canter or trot in time to 
the music. 



100 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

" Do you understand," Theodore asks, " that 
these horses adjust their gait to the music ? " 

u So Nell's friend says." 

"Well, I don't believe it. They are good 
horses, but I don't believe that they practise 
circus tricks. Why must I go to the centre the 
minute that you bid me? Why couldn't you 
pull up and pass out behind me ? " 

" Because if I did, somebody might ride over 
me. It is not proper to stop while on the 
track." 

" Oh-h ! How long do they trot or canter at 
a time ? Half an hour ? " 

" Only a few minutes," you answer, wonder- 
ing whether Theodore really supposes that you 
could canter, much less trot half an hour, even 
if stimulated by the music of the spheres. 

" That's a pretty rider," he says, as a girl cir- 
cles lightly past, sitting fairly well, and rising 
straight, but with her arms so much extended 
that her elbow is the apex of a very obtuse an- 
gle, although her forearms are horizontal. You 
explain this point to Theodore, who replies that 
she looks pretty, and seems to be able to trot 
for some time, whereupon your heart sinks 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 101 

within you. What will he say when he sees 
the necessary brevity of your performance ? 

Other riders enter : two or three men 
mounted on their own horses, beautiful creatures 
concerning whose value fabulous tales are told 
in the stable ; the best rider of the school, very 
quietly and correctly dressed, and managing her 
horse so easily that the women in the gallery 
do not perceive that she is guiding him at all, 
although the real judges, old soldiers, a stray 
racing man or two, the other school pupils and 
the master — regard her admiringly, and the 
grooms, as they bring in new horses, keep an 
eye on her and her movements, as they linger 
on their way back to the stable. 

" Her horse is very good," Theodore admits, 
"but I don't think much of her. Well, yes, 
that is pretty," he admits, as she executes the 
Spanish trot for a few steps and then pats her 
horse's shoulder ; " it's pretty, but anybody 
could do it on a trained horse, couldn't they, 
sir?" he asks your master, who rides up, 
mounted on his own pet horse. 

" Anybody who knew how. The horse has 
been trained to answer certain orders, but the 



102 IN THE HIDING- SCHOOL. 

orders must be given. An untrained horse 
would not understand the orders, no matter how 
good an animal he might be. Antinous might 
not have been able to ride Bucephalus, and I 
don't believe that Alexander could have coaxed 
Rosinante into a Spanish trot. It isn't enough 
to have a Corliss engine, or enough to have a 
good engineer: you must have them both, and 
they must be acquainted with one another. I 
don't believe that horse would do that for you." 

"No, I don't think he would," Theodore says 
dryly, for he has been watching, and has reluc- 
tantly owned to himself that he does not see 
how the movement is effected. Meantime, you, 
Esmeralda, have been arduously devoting your- 
self to maintaining a correct attitude, and are 
rewarded by hearing somebody in the gallery 
wonder whether you represent the kitchen 
poker or Bunker Hill Monument. 

" Don't mind," your master says, encourag- 
ingly. "It is better to be stiffly erect than to be 
crooked, and as for the person who spoke, she 
could not ride a Newfoundland dog," and with 
that he touches his hat, and rides lightly across 
the ring to speak to a lady whose horse has, in 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 103 

the opinion of the gallery, been showing a very 
bad temper, although in reality every plunge 
and curvet has been made in answer to her 
wrist and to the tiny spur which his rider wears 
and uses when needed. The lady nods in an- 
swer to something which the master says, the 
two draw near to the wall, side by side, the 
others fall in behind them, and the band begins 
a waltz, playing rather deliberately at first, but 
soon slightly accelerating the time. 

There is very little actual need of guiding 
your horse, Esmeralda, because long habit has 
taught him what to do at a music-ride, but you 
do right to continue to endeavor to make him 
obey you. Should he stumble ; should that 
man riding before you and struggling to make 
his horse change his leading foot fail in the at- 
tempt, and cause the poor creature to fall ; 
should the rider behind you lose control of her 
horse, your firm hold of the reins would be of 
priceless value to you, but now the waltz rhythm 
suddenly changes to that of a march, and your 
horse begins to trot, slowly and with little action 
at first, and then with a freer, longer stride which 
really lifts you out of the saddle, sending you 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



rather too high for grace, indeed, but making the 
effort very slight for you, and enabling you 
to think about your elbows, and sitting to the 
right and keeping your right shoulder back and 
your right foot close to the saddle and pointing 
downward, and your left knee also close, and 
" about seventy-five other things," as you sum 
up the case to yourself. Thanks to this, you are 
enabled to continue until the music stops, and 
Theodore says, approvingly, "Well, you can ride 
a little." 

" A very little," your master says. " She has 
learned something, of course, but it would be 
the unkindest of flattery for me to tell her that 
she does well." 

" One must begin to ride in early childhood," 
Theodore says. 

" One should begin to be taught in child- 
hood," the master amends, "but it is not abso- 
lutely necessary. Some of the best riders in 
the French Army never mounted until they 
went to the military school, and some of the 
best riders at West Point only know a horse by 
sight until they fall into the clutches of the 
masters there, and then ! " His countenance 
expresses deep commiseration. 



IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 105 

" Now," he adds, " if you take my advice, 
you two, you will take places in the centre 
of the ring ; you will sit as well as you 
know how, Miss Esmeralda, and you will 
watch the others through the next music. 
It is perfectly allowable," he adds, draw- 
ing rein a moment as he passes, " to sit a 
little carelessly when your horse is at rest, 
always keeping firm hold of the reins, but I 
would rather that you did not do it until you 
have ridden a little more and are firmer in your 
seat. Hollow your waist the least in the world, 
for the sake of our poker-critic in the gallery, 
and watch for bad riding as well as for good," and 
away he goes, and again the double circle of 
riders sweeps around the ring, and you have 
time to see that the horses seem to enjoy the 
motion, and that their action is more easy and 
graceful than it is when they are obeying the 
commands of poor riders. 

Theodore indulges in a little sarcasm at the 
expense of a man whose elbows are on a level 
with his shoulders, while his two hands are with- 
in about three inches of one another on the 
reins, and his horse has as full possession of 



106 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

his head as of his body and legs, which is say- 
ing much, for his rider's toes are pointing 
earthward and his heels apparently trying to 
find a way to one another through the body of 
his steed. Another man, riding at an amble 
into which he has forced his fat horse by using 
a Mexican bit, and keeping his wrists in con- 
stant motion ; and another, who leans backward 
until his nose is on a level with the visor of his 
cap, also attract his attention, but he persists in 
his opinion that the best riders among the 
ladies are those who can trot and canter the 
longest, until your master, coming up, says in 
answer to your protest against such heresy, 
" No. Ease and a good seat are indeed 
essential, but they are not everything. They 
insure comfort and confidence, but not always 
safety. It is well to be able to leap a fence 
without being thrown. It is better to know 
how to stop and open a gate and shut it after 
you, lest some day you should have ahorse which 
cannot leap, or a sprained wrist which may 
make the leap imprudent for yourself. You 
can acquire the seat almost insensibly while 
learning the management, but you must study 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 107 

in order to learn the management. However, 
you came mainly for enjoyment to-night, I think. 
Go and ride some more." 

And you obey, and you have the enjoyment, 
and when you go to the dressing-room, it is with 
a feeling of perfect indifference to the gallery 
critics, and when you come down, ready for the 
street, you have a little gossip with the master. 

This is the only kind of music ride, he tells 
you, practicable for riders of widely varying abil- 
ity, but the ordinary circus is but a poor display of 
horsemanship compared to what may be seen in 
some private evening classes in this country, or 
in military schools. There are groups of riders in 
Boston and in New York, friends who have long- 
practised together, who can dance the lancers 
and Virginia reels as easily on horseback as on 
foot, and who can ride at the ring as well as 
Lord Lindesay himself, or as well as the pretty 
English girls who amuse themselves with the 
sport in India. 

" Just think," you sigh, "to be able to make 
your horse go forward and back, and to move in 
a circle, a little bit of a circle, and to do it all 
exactly in time ! Oh ! " 



108 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

And then, seeing Theodore perfectly un- 
moved, your master tells of the military music 
rides when, rank after rank, the soldiers dash 
across the wide spaces of the school and stop 
at a word, or by a preconcerted, silent signal, 
every horse's head in line, every left hand down, 
sabre or lance exactly poised, every foot motion- 
less, horse and rider still as if wrought from 
bronze. And then he tells of the labyrinthine 
evolutions when the long line moving over the 
school floor coils and uncoils itself more swiftly 
than any serpent, each horse moving at speed, 
each one obeying as implicitly as any creature 
of brass and iron moved by steam. And then he 
talks of broadsword fights, in which the left 
hand, managing the horse, outdoes the cunning 
of the right, and of the great reviews, when, if 
ever, a monarch must feel his power as he 
sees the squadrons dash past him, saluting as 
one man, and reflects on the expenditure of 
mental and physical power represented in that 
one moment's display. 

" You can't learn to do such things as these," 
he says, "by mere rough riding. Why, only 
the other day, when Queen Victoria went to 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 109 

Sandringham, the gentlemen of the Norfolk 
County hunt turned out to escort her carriage, 
all in pink, all wearing the green velvet caps of 
the hunt, all splendidly mounted and perfectly 
appointed. They were a magnificent sight, 
and it was no wonder that Her Majesty looked 
at them with approval. 

" In a dash across country they would prob- 
ably have surpassed any other riders in the 
world, unless, perhaps, those of some other 
English county, but when Her Majesty and the 
Prince of Wales appeared at a front window, 
and the gentlemen rode past to salute them, 
what happened ? The first three or four ranks 
went on well enough, although Frenchmen, or 
Spaniards, or Germans would have done better, 
because they, had they chosen, would have 
saluted and then reined backward, but the Eng- 
lishmen made a gallant show, and Her Majesty 
smiled. Somebody raised a cheer, and the 
horses began to rear and to perform movements 
not named in the school manuals. The Queen 
laughed outright, and the gentlemen finished 
their pretty parade in some confusion. Now 
a very little school training would have pre- 



110 IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 

vented that accident, and the huntsmen would 
have been as undisturbed as Queen Christina 
was that day when her horse began to plunge 
while in a procession, and she quickly brought 
him to his senses, and won the heart of every 
Spaniard who saw her by showing that ' the 
Austrian ' could ride. An English hunting- 
man's seat is so good that he is often careless 
about fine details, but a trained horseman is 
careless about nothing, and a trained horse- 
woman is like unto him." 

And now the lights are out, and you and 
Theodore go away, and, walking home, lay 
plans for further work in the saddle, for he, too, 
has caught the riding-fever, and now you begin 
to think about class lessons. 




W THE BIDING-SCHOOL. Ill 

VIII. 

All in a wow. 

Sothern. 

jND you really fancy, Esmeralda, that 
p? you are ready for class lessons ? 
You have been in the saddle only 
six times, remember. But you have 
been assured, on the highest authority, that 
fifty lessons in class are worth a hundred pri- 
vate lessons ? And the same authority says 
that the class lessons should be preceded by at 
least twice as much private instruction as you 
have enjoyed ; but, naturally, you suppress this 
unfavorable context. You think that you can- 
not begin to subject yourself to military disci- 
pline too soon ? 

After that highly edifying statement of your 
feelings, Esmeralda, hasten away to school be- 
fore the dew evaporates from your dawning 
humility, and make arrangements for entering 
a class of beginners. You are fortunate in ar- 
riving half way between two " hours," and find 



112 IN THE R WING- SCHOOL. 

to your delight that you may begin to ride with 
five or six other pupils on the next stroke of 
the clock, and you hasten to array yourself, and 
come forth just in time to see another class, a 
long line of pretty girls, making its closing 
rounds, the leader sitting with exquisitely bal- 
anced poise, which seems perfectly careless, but 
is the result of years of training and practice ; 
others following her with somewhat less grace, 
but still accomplishing what even your slightly 
taught vision perceives to be feats of manage- 
ment far beyond you ; still others, one blushing 
little girl with her hat slung on her arm, the 
heavy coils of her hair falling below her waist ; 
and an assistant master riding with the last 
pupil, who is less skillful than the others, while 
another master rides up and down the line or 
stands still in the centre of the ring, criticising, 
exhorting, praising, using sarcasm, entreaty and 
sharp command, until the zeal and energy of all 
Gaul seem centred in his speech. 

The clock strikes, and in a trice the whole 
class is dismounted, and its members have 
scampered away to make themselves present- 
able for their journey home, and to you, await- 



IX THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 113 

ing your destiny in the reception room, enter 
Versatilia, the beauty, and the society young 
lady, and Nell, and you stare at them in wrath- 
ful astonishment fully equalled by theirs, and 
then, in the following grand outburst of confes- 
sion, you are informed that, each one having 
planned to outgeneral the others and to become 
a wondrous equestrian, the Fates and the wise 
fairy who, sitting in a little room overlooking 
the ring, presides over the destinies of classes, 
have willed that you should be taught together. 
" And there are three other young ladies who 
have never ridden at all," the wise fairy says, 
" and they are to ride behind you, and you must 
do very well in order to encourage them," she 
adds with a kind smile ; and then there is a gen- 
eral muster of grooms and horses, and in a 
moment you are all in your saddles and walk- 
ing about the ring, into which, an instant after, 
another lady rides easily and gracefully, to be 
saluted by both masters with a sigh of relief, 
and requested to take the lead, which she does, 
trotting lightly across the ring, wheeling into 
line and falling into a walk with trained precis- 
ion, and now the lesson really begins. 



114 IN THE RIDIXG-SCHOOL. 

" You must understand, ladies," says the 
teacher, "that you must always, in riding in class, 
keep a distance of about three feet between 
your horse and the one before you, and that 
you must preserve this equally in the corners, 
on the short sides of the school, and on the 
long sides." 

" That's easy enough, I'm sure," says the so- 
ciety young lady, taking it upon herself to 
answer, and eliciting an expression of astonish- 
ment from the teacher, not because he is sur- 
prised, habit having rendered him sadly familiar 
with young women of her type, but because he 
wishes to relegate her to her proper position of 
submissive silence as soon as may be. 

" You think so ? " he asks. " Then we shall 
depend on you to regard the distance with great 
accuracy. At present you are two feet too far 
in the rear. Forward! Now, ladies, when I 
say 'forward,' it is not alone for one; it is for 
all of you ; each one must look and see whether 
or not her horse is in the right place. And she 
must not bend sidewise to do it, Miss Versa- 
tilia. She must look over her horse's head be- 
tween his ears. Now, forward ! Now, look 



AV THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



straight between your horse's ears, each one of 
you, and see something on the horse before 
you that is just on a line with the top of his 
head, and use that as a guide to tell you 
whether or not you are in place ! Now, for- 
ward, Miss — Miss Lady ! Not so fast ! Keep 
walking ! Do not let him trot ! Keep up in 
the corners ! Do not let your horse go there 
to think ! Use your whip lightly ! Not so, 
not so ! " as the society young lady brings down 
her whip, half on the shoulder of gentle Toto, 
half on his saddle, and sets him dancing lightly 
out of the line, to the discomfiture of Versa- 
tilia's horse, who follows from a sense of duty. 

" Take your places again," cries your teacher, 
" and keep to the wall ! If you had had proper 
control of your horse, that would not have hap- 
pened, Miss Versatilia ! Now, Miss Lady, hold 
your whip in the hollow of your hand, and use 
it by a slight movement, not by raising your 
arm and lashing, lashing, lashing as if you were 
on the race course. A lady is not a jockey, and 
she should employ her whip almost as quietly 
as she moves her left foot. Forward, forward ! 
And keep on the track, ladies ! Keep your 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



horses' heads straight by holding your reins 
perfectly even, then their bodies will be straight, 
and you will make one line instead of being on 
six lines as you are now. And, Miss Esmeralda, 
forward ! Use your whip ! Not so gently ! It 
is not always enough to give your horse one 
little tap. Give him many, one after the other 
with quickened movement, so that he will 
understand that you are in a hurry. It is like 
the reveille which sounds ever louder until 
everybody is wide awake ! 

" Now, you must not make circles ! Make 
squares ! Go into the corners ! Don't pull 
on your horse's head, Miss Nell! He thinks 
that you mean him to stop, and then you 
whip him and he tries to go on, and you 
pull again, and he knows not what to think. 
Always carry out whatever purpose you begin 
with your horse if you can. If sometimes you 
make a mistake, and cannot absolutely correct 
it because of those behind you, guide your 
horse to his proper place, and the next time 
that you come to that part of the ring, make 
him go right ! Forward, forward ! Ladies, 
not one of you is in the right place ! Keep up ! 



Z/V THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 117 

Keep up ! Miss Lady, you must go forward 
regularly ! Now prepare to trot ! No, no ! 
Walk ! When I say, ' Prepare to trot,' it is not 
for you to begin, but to think of what you 
must do to begin, and you must not let your 
horses go until I give the second order, and 
then not too fast at first. Now, prepare to 
trot ! Trot ! Not quite so fast, Miss Lady ; 
gently ! Keep up, keep up, Miss Beauty ! 
Miss Esmeralda, you are sitting too far to the 
left ; your left shoulder is too far back ! Don't 
hold your hands so high, Miss Versatilia ! 
Rise straight, Miss Esmeralda ! Now, remem- 
ber, ladies, what I say is for all. Prepare to 
whoa ! Whoa ! " 

The leader, by an almost imperceptible series 
of movements, first sitting down in her saddle, 
then slightly relaxing her hold of the reins, 
and turning both hands very slightly inward, 
brings her horse to a walk and continues on her 
way. The others, with more or less awkward- 
ness, come to a full stop, and your teacher 
laughs. 

"When I say that," he explains, " I mean to 
cease trotting, not to stop. Go forward, and 



118 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

remember how you have been taught to go for- 
ward, Miss Esmeralda. It is not enough to 
frown at your horse. Now, prepare to trot ! 
Trot ! " And then he repeats again and again 
that series of injunctions which already seems 
so threadbare to you, Esmeralda, but which you 
do not follow, not because you do not try, but 
because you have not full control of your mus- 
cles, and then comes once more the order, 
" Prepare to whoa. Whoa ! " and a volley of 
sharp reminders about distance and about the 
solemn duty of keeping a horse moving while 
turning corners, and once more the column 
proceeds as regularly as possible. 

" I observe," says your teacher, riding close 
to you, " that you seem timid, Miss Esmeralda. 
Do you feel frightened." 

" No," you assure him. 

" Then it is because you are nervous that you 
are so rigid. Try not to be stiff. Give your- 
self a little more flexibility in the fingers, the 
wrists, the elbows, everywhere ! You are not 
tired ? No ? Be easy then, be easy ! " And 
you remember that you have been likened unto 
a poker, and sadly think that, perhaps the 
comparison was just. 



IX THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



" The other master shall ride with you for a 
few rounds," he continues ; " that will give you 
confidence, and you will not be nervous." You 
indignantly disclaim the possession of nerves, 
he smiles indulgently, and the other teacher 
rides up beside you, and advises you steadily 
and quietly during the next succession of trot- 
ting and walking, and, conscious of not exert- 
ing yourself quite so much and of being easier, 
you begin to think that perhaps you have a 
nerve or two somewhere, and you determine to 
conquer them. 

" You are sitting too far to the right now," 
says your new guide, the most quiet of North 
Britons. "There should be about half an inch 
of the saddle visible to you beyond the edge of 
your habit, if it fit quite smooth, but you would 
better not look down to see it. It would do no 
harm for once, perhaps, but it would look queer, 
and might come to be a habit. Try to judge 
of your position by the feeling of your shoul- 
ders and by thinking whether you are observ- 
ing every rule ; but, once in a great while, when 
you are walking, take your reins in your left 
hand, pass your right hand lightly along the 



120 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

edge of your saddle and satisfy yourself that 
you are quite correct in position. If you be 
quite sure that you can take a downward glance, 
without moving your head, try it occasionally, 
but very rarely. Use this, in fact, as you would 
use a measure to verify a drawing after employ- 
ing every other test, and if any teacher notice 
you and reprove you for doing it, do not allow 
yourself to use it again for two or three les- 
sons, for, unless you can be quiet about it, it is 
better not to use it at all." 

" Ladies, ladies," cries a new voice, at the 
sound of which the leader is seen to sit even 
better than before, " this is not a church, that 
you should go to sleep while you are taught 
truth! Attend to your instructor! Keep up 
when he tells you. Make your movements 
with energy. You tire him ; you tire me ; you 
tire the good horses! Now, then, rouse your- 
selves ! Prepare to trot ! Trot ! " And away 
go the horses, each one seeming to feel new 
vigor, for it is not every hour that they hear 
the strong voice which means that instant obe- 
dience must be rendered. " Keep up ! keep 
up ! " cries your teacher. " Come on ! " says 



W THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 121 

your own guide, and then pauses himself, to urge 
on the beginners behind you, and for a minute 
or two the orders follow one another thick and 
fast, the three men working together, each 
seeming to have eyes for each pupil, and to 
divine the intentions of his coadjutors, and 
then comes the order, " Prepare to whoa ! 
Whoa ! " and the master sits down on the 
mounting-stand, and frees his mind on the 
subject of corners, a topic which you begin to 
think is inexhaustible. 

" Please show these ladies how to go into a 
corner," he concludes, and your teacher does 
so, executing the movement so marvelously 
that it seems as if he would have no difficulty 
in performing it in any passageway through 
which his horse could walk in a straight line. 
The whole class gazes enviously, to be brought 
to a proper frame of mind by a sharp expostu- 
latory fire of : " Keep your distance ! For- 
ward ! " with about four times as many warn- 
ings addressed to the society young lady as to 
all the others ; and then suddenly, unexpectedly, 
the clock strikes and the lesson is over. 

The society young lady dresses herself with 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



much precision and deliberation, and announces 
that she will never, no, never ! never so long as 
she lives, come again ; and in spite of Nell's 
attempts to quiet her, she repeats the state- 
ment in the reception room, in the master's 
hearing, aiming it straight at his quiet coun- 
tenance. 

"No?" he says, not so much disturbed as 
she could desire. " You should not despair, 
you will learn in time." 

" I don't despair," she answers ; " but I 
know something, and I will not be treated as if 
I knew nothing." 

" Ah, you know something," he repeats, in 
an interested way. " But what you do not 
know, my young lady, is how little that some- 
thing is ! This is a school ; you come here to 
be taught. I will not cheat you by not teach- 
ing you." 

" And it is no way to teach ! Three men 
ordering a class at once ! " 

" Ah, it is ' no way to teach ' ! Now, it is I who 
am taking a lesson from you. I am greatly 
obliged, but I must keep to my own old way. It 
may be wrong — for you, my young lady — but 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



it has made soldiers to ride, and little girls, and 
other young ladies, and I am content. And 
these others? Are they not coming any 
more ? " 

And every one of those cowardly girls hud- 
dles away behind you, Esmeralda, and leaves 
you to stammer, " Y-yes, sir, but you do s-scold 
a little hard." 

" That," says the master, "is my big voice to 
make the horses mind, and to make sure that 
you hear it. And I told you the other day that 
I spoke for your good, not for my own. If 
I should say every time I want trotting, ' My 
dear and much respected beautiful young ladies, 
please to trot,' how much would you learn in a 
morning ? " 

" We are ladies," says the society young lady, 
"and we should be treated as ladies." 

"And you — or these others, since you 
retire — are my pupils, and shall be treated as 
my pupils," he says with a courtly bow and a 
" Good morning," and you go away trying to 
persuade the society young lady to reconsider. 

" Not that I care much whether she does or 
not," Nell says confidentially to you. " She's too 



124 IJY THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

overbearing for me," and just at that minute the 
voice of the society young lady is heard to call 
the master " overbearing,' 1 and you and Nell 
exchange delighted, mischievous smiles. 

Now for that stiffness of yours, Esmeralda, 
there is a remedy, as there is for everything but 
death, and you should use it immediately, before 
the rigidity becomes habitual. Continue your 
other exercises, but devote only about a third as 
much time to them, and use the other two thirds 
for Delsarte movements. 

First : Let your hands hang loosely from the 
wrist, and swing them lifelessly to and fro. 
Execute the movement first with the right hand 
then with the left, then with both. 

Second : Let the fingers hang from the 
knuckles, and shake them in the same way and 
in the same order. 

Third : Let the forearm hang from the elbow, 
and proceed in like manner. 

Fourth : Let the whole arm hang from the 
shoulder, and swing the arms by twisting the 
torso. 

Execute the finger and hand movements 
with the arms hanging at the side, ex- 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 125 

tended sidewise, stretched above the head, 
thrust straight forward, with the arms thrust 
straight forward and the forearms bent at right 
angles to them and with the arms flung back- 
ward as far as possible. Execute the forearm 
movements with the arms falling at the side, and 
also with the elbow as high as the shoulder. 

After you have performed these exercises for 
a few days, you will begin to find it possible to 
make yourself limp and lifeless when necessary, 
and the knowledge will be almost as valuable as 
the ability to hold yourself firm and steady. 
You will find the exercises in Mrs. Thompson's 
" Society Gymnastics," but these are all that 
you will need for at least one week, especially if 
you have to devote many hours to the task of 
persuading the society young lady not to leave 
your class unto you desolate. 




126 IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 



IX. 

" Left wheel into line ! " and they 
wheel and obey. 

Tennyson. 

IHEN you arrive at the school for your 
second class lesson, Esmeralda, you 
find the dressing-room pervaded by 
a silence as clearly indicative of a 
recent tempest as the path cloven through a 
forest by a tornado. From the shelter of 
screens and from retired nooks, come sounds 
indicative of garments doffed and donned with 
abnormal celerity and severity, but never a word 
of joking, and never a cry for deft-fingered 
Kitty's assistance, and then, little by little, even 
these noises die away, and the palace of the 
Sleeping Beauty could not be more quiet. No 
girl stirs from her lurking-place, until you your- 
self issue from your pet corner, and then Nell, 
a warning finger on her lip, noiselessly emerges 
from hers, and you go into the reception room 
together, and she explains to you that, despite 



IN THE BIDWG-SCHOOL. 127 

her announcement that she would never come 
again, the society young lady has appeared, and 
has announced her intention to defend what she 
grandly terms her position as a lady. 

" And the master will think us, her associates, 
as unruly as she is ! " Nell almost sobs. " If I 
were he, I would send the whole class home, 
there ! " But the other girls now enter, each 
magnificently polite to the others, and the file of 
nine begins its journey along the wall, attended as 
before, the society young lady taking great pains 
about distance, and really doing very well, but 
the beauty sitting with calm negligence which 
soon brings a volley of remonstrance from both 
teachers, who address her much after the fash- 
ion of Sydney Smith's saying, " You are on the 
high road to ruin the moment you think yourself 
rich enough to be careless." 

" You must not keep your whip in contact 
with your horse's shoulder all the time," lec- 
tures one of the teachers, " if you do, you have 
no means of urging him to go forward a little 
faster. Keep it pressed against the saddle, not 
slanting outward or backward. When you use 
it, do it without relaxing your hold upon the 



128 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

reins, for if, by any mischance, your horse should 
start quickly, you will need it. Forward, ladies, 
forward ! Don't stop in the corners ! Use 
your whips a very little, just as you begin to 
turn ! Miss Esmeralda, keep to the wall ! No, 
no ! Don't keep to the wall by having your 
left rein shorter than your right ! They should 
be precisely even." 

"As you approach the corner," says the 
other teacher quietly, speaking to you alone, 
"carry your right hand a little nearer to your 
left without bending your wrist, so that your 
rein will just touch your horse's neck on the 
right side. That will keep his head straight." 

"But he seems determined to go to the 
right," you object. 

"That is because your right rein is too short 
now. While we are going down the long side 
of the school, make the reins precisely even. 
Now, lay the right rein on his neck, use your 
whip and touch him with your heel to make 
him go on ; bend your right wrist to turn him, 
use your whip once more, and go on again ! " 

" Forward, Miss Esmeralda, forward ! " cries 
the other teacher. 



IN THE BIDiyG-SCHOOL. 



"That is because Miss Lady did not go into 
the corner, and so is too far in advance," your 
teacher explains. " You must, in class, keep 
your distance as carefully when the rider imme- 
diately before you is wrong as when she is 
right. It is the necessity of doing that, of hav- 
ing to be ready for emergencies, to think of 
others as much as of your horse and of your- 
self, that give class teaching much of its value." 

" Forward, ladies, forward," cries the other 
teacher. " Remember that you are not to go to 
sleep ! Now prepare to trot, and don't go too 
fast at first. Remember always to change 
from one gait to another gently, for your own 
sake, that you may not be thrown out of 
position ; for your horse's, that he may not be 
startled, and made unruly and ungraceful. 
He has nerves as well as you. Now, prepare 
to trot ! Trot ! Shorten your reins, Miss 
Beauty ! Shorten them ! " and during the 
next minute or two, while the class trots 
about a third of a mile, the poor beauty hears 
every command in the manual addressed to 
her, and smilingly tries, but tries in vain, to 
obey them ; but in an unhappy moment the 



130 IX THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

teacher's glance falls on the society young lady 
and he bids her keep her right shoulder back. 
" You told me that before," she says, rather 
more crisply than is prescribed by any of the 
manuals of etiquette which constitute her sole 
library. 

" Then why don't you do it ? " is his answer. 
" Keep your left shoulder forward," he says a 
moment later, whereupon the society young 
lady turns to the right, and plants herself in the 
centre of the ring with as much dignity as is 
possible, considering that her horse, not having 
been properly stopped, and feeling the nervous 
movements of her hands, moves now one leg 
and now another, now draws his head down 
pulling her forward on the pommel, and gener- 
ally disturbs the beautiful repose of manner 
upon which she prides herself. 

" You are tired ? No ? Frightened ? Your 
stirrup is too short ? You are not comfort- 
able?" demands the teacher, riding up beside 
her. " Is there anything which you would like 
to have me do ? " 

" I don't like to be told to do two things at 
once," she responds in a tone which should be 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 131 

felt by the thermometer at the other end of the 
ring. 

"But you must do two things at once, and 
many more than two, on horseback," he says ; 
" when you are rested, take your place in the 
line." 

"I think I will dismount," she says. 

" Very well," and before she has time to 
change her mind, a bell is rung, a groom guides 
her horse to the mounting-stand, the master 
himself takes her out of the saddle, courte- 
ously bids her be seated in the reception room 
and watch the others, and she finds her little dem- 
onstration completely and effectually crushed, 
and, what is worse, apparently without inten- 
tion. Nobody appears to be aware that she 
has intended a rebellion, although " whole 
Fourth of Julys seem to bile in her veins." 

"Now," the teacher goes on, "we will turn 
to the right, singly. Turn ! Keep up, ladies ! 
Keep up ! Ride straight ! To the right again ! 
Turn ! " and back on the track, on the other 
side of the school, the leader in the rear, the 
beginners in advance, you continue until two 
more turns to the right replace you. 



132 IN THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 

" That was all wrong," the teacher says, 
cheerfully. "You did not ride straight, and 
you did not ride together. Your horses' heads 
should be in line with one another every step 
of the way across the school, and then when 
you arrive at the track and turn to the right 
again, your distance will be correct. Now we 
will have a little trot, and while you are resting 
afterward, you shall try the turn again." 

The society young lady, watching the scene 
in sulkiness, notes various faults in each rider 
and feels that the truly promising pupil of the 
class is sitting in her chair at that moment ; 
but she says nothing of the kind, contenting 
herself by asking the master, with well-adjusted 
carelessness, if it would not be better for the 
teacher to speak softly. 

" It gives a positive shock to the nerves to 
be so vehemently addressed," she says, with the 
air of a Hammond advising an ignorant nurse. 

" That is what he has the intention to do," 
replies the other. " It is necessary to arouse 
the rider's will and not to let her sleep, but if it 
were not, the teacher of riding, or anybody who 
has to give orders, orders, orders all day long, 



IJV THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 133 

must speak from an expanded chest, with his 
lungs full of air, or at night he will be dumb. 
The young man behind the counter who has to 
entreat, to persuade, to beg, to be gentle, he 
may make his voice soft, but to speak with 
energy in a low tone is to strain the vocal cords 
and to injure the lungs permanently. The opera 
singer finds to sing piano, pianissimo more 
wearisome than to make herself heard above a 
Wagner orchestra. The orator, with everybody 
still and listening with countenance intent, 
dares not to speak softly, except now and then 
for contrast. In the army we have three 
months' rest, and then we go to the surgeon, 
and he examines our throats and lungs, and sees 
whether or not they need any treatment. If 
you go to the camp of the military this summer, 
'you will find the young officers whom you know 
in the ball-room so soft and so gentle, not 
whispering to their men, but shouting, and the 
best officer will have the loudest shout." 

The society young lady remembers the 
stories which she has heard her father and 
uncles tell of that " officer's sore throat," 
which in 1861 and 1862, caused so many ludi- 



134 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

crous incidents among the volunteer soldiery, 
the energetic drill master of one day being 
transformed into a voiceless pantomimist by 
the next, but, like Juliet when she spoke, she 
says nothing, and now the teacher once more 
cries, "Turn !" and then, suddenly, "Prepare 
to stop ! Stop ! Now look at your line ! No 
two of you have your horses' heads even ! 
And how many of you were riding straight ?" 

A dead silence gives a precisely correct 
answer, and again he cries, " Forward ! " A 
repetition of the movement is demanded, and 
is received with cries of " This is not good, 
ladies ! This is not good ! We will try again 
by and by. Now, prepare to change hands in 
file." 

The leader, turning at one corner of the 
school, makes a line almost like a reversed 
" s " to the corner diagonally opposite, and 
comes back to the track on the left hand, the 
others straggling after with about as much 
precision and grace as Jill followed Jack down 
the hill ; but, before they are fairly aware how 
very ill they have performed the manoeuvre, 
they perceive that their teacher not only aimed 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



at having them learn how to turn to the left at 
each corner, but also at giving himself an op- 
portunity to make remarks about their feet and 
the position thereof, and at the end of five min- 
utes each girl feels as if she were a centipede, 
and you, Esmeralda, secretly wonder whether 
something in the way of mucilage or thumb- 
tacks might not be used to keep your own rid- 
ing boots close to the saddle. " And don't let 
your left foot swing," says the teacher in clos- 
ing his exhortations ; "hold it perfectly steady! 
Now change hands in file, and come back to the 
track on the right again, and we will have a 
little trot." 

" And before you begin," lectures the mas- 
ter, " I will te.ll you something. The faster 
you go, after once you know how to stay in 
your saddle, the better for you, the better for 
your horse. You see the great steamer cross- 
ing the ocean when under full headway, and 
she can turn now this way and now that, with 
the least little touch of the rudder, but when 
she is creeping, creeping through the narrow 
channel, she must have a strong, sure hand at 
the helm, and when she is coming up to her 



136 IX THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL, 

wharf, easy, easy, she must swing in a wide 
circle. That is why my word to you is always 
1 Forward ! Forward ! ' and again, ' Forward ! ' 
There is a scientific reason underlying this, if 
you care to know it. When you go fast, neither 
you nor your horse has time to feel the press- 
ure of the atmosphere from above, and that is 
why it seems as if you were flying, and he is 
happy and exhilarated as well as you. You will 
see the tame horse in the paddock gallop about 
for his pleasure, and the wild horse on the prai- 
rie will start and run for miles in mere sportive- 
ness. So, if you want to have pleasure on 
horseback, ' Forward ! ' " 

While the little trot is going on, the society 
young lady improves the shining hour by ask- 
ing the master "if he do not think it cruel to 
make a poor horse go just as fast as it can," to 
which he replies that the horse will desire 
to go quite as long as she can or will, where- 
upon she withdraws into the cave of sulkiness 
again, but brightens perceptibly as you dis- 
mount and join her. 

"You do look so funny, Esmeralda," she 
begins. " Your feet do seem positively im- 
mense, as the teacher said." 



IX THE BIDIXG- SCHOOL. 137 

" Pardon me; I said not that," gently inter- 
poses the teacher ; " only that they looked too 
big ; bigger than they are, when she turns 
them outward." 

" And you do sit very much on one side," 
she continues to Versatilia ; "and your crimps 
are quite flat, my dear," to the beauty. 

" Never mind; they aren't fastened on with 
a safety pin," retorts the beauty, plucking up 
spirit, unexpectedly. 

" O, no ! of course not," the wise fairy in- 
terposes, with a little laugh. " You young 
ladies do not do such things, of course. But, 
do you know, I heard of a lady who wore a 
switch into a riding-school ring one day, and 
it came off, and the riding master had to keep 
it in his pocket until the end of the lesson." 

Little does the wise fairy know of the society 
young lady's ways ! What she has determined 
to say, she declines to retain unsaid, and so she 
cries: "And yon do thrust your head forward 
so awkwardly, Nell ! " 

" ' We are ladies,' " quotes Nell, " and we can't 
answer you," and the society young lady finds 
herself alone with the wise fairy, who is sud- 



138 IX THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

denly very busy with her books, and, after a 
moment, she renews her announcement that she 
is not coming any more. " Well, I wouldn't," 
the wise fairy says, looking thoughtfully at her. 
" You make the others unhappy, and that is not 
desirable, and you will not be taught. I gave 
you fair warning that the master would be 
severe, but those who come here to learn enjoy 
their lessons. Once in a great while there are 
ladies who do not wish to be taught, but they 
find it out very soon, as you have." 

"There is always a good reason for every- 
thing," the master says gravely. " Now, I have 
seen many great men who could not learn to 
ride. There was Gambetta. Nothing would 
make a fine rider of that man ! Why ? Be- 
cause for one moment that his mind was on his 
horse, a hundred it was on something else. 
And Jules Verne ! He could not learn ! And 
Emile Girardin ! They had so many things to 
think about ! Now, perhaps it is so with this 
young lady. Society demands so much, one 
must do so many things, that she cannot bend 
her mind to this one little art. It is unfortu- 
nate, but then she is not the first ! " And with 



IN THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 



a little salute he turns away, and the society 
young lady, much crosser than she was before 
he invented this apology for her, comes into the 
dressing room and — bids you farewell ? Not 
at all ! Says that she is sorry, and that she 
knows that she can learn, and is going to try. 
" And I suppose now that nothing will make her 
go ! " Nell says, lugubriously, as you saunter 
homeward. 

You are still conscious of stiffness, Esmer- 
alda ? That is not a matter for surprise or for 
anxiety. All your life you have been working 
for strength, for even your dancing-school- 
teacher was not one of those scientific ballet- 
masters, who, like Carlo Blasis, would have 
taught you that the strength of a muscle often 
deprives it of flexibility and softness. You de- 
sire that your muscles should be rigid or relaxed 
at will. Go and stand in front of your mirror, 
and let your head drop toward either shoulder, 
causing your whole torso to become limp. Now 
hold the head erect, and try to reproduce the 
feeling. The effect is awkward, and not to be 
practised in public, but the exercise enables 
you to perceive for yourself when you are stiff 



140 IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 

about the shoulders and waist. Now drop your 
head backward, and swing the body, not trying 
to control the head, and persist until you can 
thoroughly relax the muscles of the neck, a 
work which you need not expect to accomplish 
until after you have made many efforts. Now 
execute all your movements for strengthening 
the muscles, very slowly and lightly, using as 
little force as possible. After you can do this 
fairly well, begin by executing them quickly and 
forcibly, then gradually retard them, and make 
them more gently, until you glide at last into 
perfect repose. This will take time, but the 
good results will appear, not only in your riding, 
but also in your walking and in your dancing. 
You and Nell might practise these Delsarte 
exercises together, for no especial dress is 
needed for them, and companionship will remove 
the danger of that dulness which, it must be ad- 
mitted, sometimes besets the amateur, unsus- 
tained by the artist's patient energy. Before 
you take another class lesson, you may have an 
exercise ride, in which to practise what you 
have learned. "Tried to learn ! " do you say ? 
Well, really, Esmeralda, one begins to have 
hopes of you ! 



IX THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 




X. 

— Ye couldn't have made him a rider, 
And then ye know, boys will be boys, and hosses, 
— well, hosses is hosses ! 
Harte. 

IHEN you and Nell go to take your 
exercise ride, Esmeralda, you must 
assume the air of having ridden 
before you were able to walk, and of 
being so replete with equestrian knowledge 
that the " acquisition of another detail would 
cause immediate dissolution," as the Normal 
college girl said when asked if she knew how 
to teach. You must insist on having a certain 
horse, no matter how much inconvenience it 
may create, and, if possible, you should order 
him twenty-four hours in advance, stipulating 
that nobody shall mount him in the interval, 
and, while waiting for him to be brought in 
from the stable, you should proclaim that he is 
a wonderfully spirited, not to say vicious, creat- 
ure, but that you are not in the smallest degree 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



afraid of him. You should pick up your reins 
with easy grace, and having twisted them into 
a hopeless snarl, should explain to any specta- 
tor who may presume to smile that one " very 
soon forgets these little things, you know, but 
they will come back in a little while." 

Having started, you must choose between 
steadily trotting or rapidly cantering, absolutely 
regardless of the rights or wishes of any one 
else, or you must hold your horse to a spiritless 
crawl, carefully keeping him in such a position 
as to prevent anybody else from outspeeding 
you. If you were a man, you would feel it in- 
cumbent upon you to entreat your master to 
permit you to change horses with him, and 
would give him certain valuable information, 
derived from quarters vaguely specified as "a 
person who knows," or " a man who rides a 
great deal," meaning somebody who is in the 
saddle twenty times a year, and duly pays his 
livery stable bill for the privilege, and you 
would confide to some other exercise rider, if 
possible, in the hearing of seven or eight pupils, 
that your master was not much of a rider after 
all, that the " natural rider was the best," and 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 143 

you would insinuate that to observe perfection 
it was only necessary to look at you. If, in ad- 
dition to this, you could intimate to any worried 
or impatient pupils that they had not been 
properly taught, you would make yourself gen- 
erally beloved, and these are the ways of the 
casual exercise rider, male and female. But 
you, Esmeralda, are slightly unfitted for the 
perfect assumption of this part by knowing 
how certain things ought to be done, although 
you cannot do them, and alas ! you are not yet 
adapted to the humbler but prettier character of 
the real exercise rider, who is thoroughly taught, 
and whose every movement is a pleasure to be- 
hold. 

There are many such women and a few men 
who prefer the ring to the road for vari- 
ous reasons, and from them you may learn 
much, both by observation and from the hints 
which many of them will give you if they find 
that you are anxious to learn, and that you are 
really nothing more pretentious than a solitary 
student. So into the saddle you go, and you 
and Nell begin to walk about in company. " In 
company," indeed, for about half a round, and 



144 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

then you begin to fall behind. Touching your 
Abdallah lightly with whip and heel starts him 
into a trot, and coming up beside Nell you 
start off her Arab, and both horses are rather 
astonished to be checked. What do these girls 
want, they think, and when you fall behind again, 
it takes two strokes of the whip to urge Abdal- 
lah forward, Arab is unmoved by your passing 
him, and you find the breadth of the ring divid- 
ing you and Nell. You pause, she turns to the 
right, crosses the space between you, turns again 
and is by your side, and now both of you begin to 
see what you must do. Nell, who is riding on the 
inside, that is to say on the included square, must 
check her horse very slightly after turning each 
corner, and you must hasten yours a little before 
turning, and a little after, so as to give her suffi- 
cient space to turn, and, at the same time, to keep 
up with her. You, being on her left, must be very 
careful every moment to have a firm hold of 
your left rein, so as to keep away from her feet, 
and she must keep especial watch of her right 
rein in order to guard herself. 

After each of you has learned her part pretty 
well, you should exchange places and try again, 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 145 

and then have a round or two of trotting, keep- 
ing your horses' heads in line. You will find 
both of them very tractable to this discipline, 
because accustomed to having your master's 
horse keep pace with them, and because they 
often go in pairs at the music rides, and you must 
not expect that an ordinary livery stable horse 
would be as easily managed. It is rather fash- 
ionable to sneer at the riding-school horse as 
too mild for the use of a good rider, and very 
likely, while you and Nell are patiently trying 
your little experiment, you will hear a youth 
with very evident straps on his trousers, super- 
ciliously requesting to have " something spir- 
ited " brought in from the stable for him. 

" Not one of your school horses, taught to 
tramp a treadmill round, but a regular flyer," he 
explains. 

" Is he a very good rider? " you ask your mas- 
ter. "Last time he was here I bad to take him 
off Abdallah," he says sadly, and then he goes 
to the mounting-stand to deny " the regular 
flyer," and to tender instead, " an animal that 
we don't give to everybody, William." Enter 
" William," otherwise Billy Buttons, whom the 



U6 m THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

gentleman covetous of a flyer soon finds to be 
enough for him to manage, because William, 
although accustomed to riders awkward through 
weakness, is not used to the manners of what 
is called the " three-legged trotter" ; that is to 
say, the man whose unbent arms and tightened 
reins make a straight line from his shoulders to 
his horse's mouth, while his whole weight is 
thrown upon the reins by a backward inclina- 
tion of his body. 

If you would like to know how Billy feels 
about it, Esmeralda, bend your chin toward 
your throat, and imagine a bar of iron placed 
across your tongue and pulling your head up- 
ward. It would hurt you, but you could raise 
your head, and still go forward, making wild 
gestures with your hands, kicking, perhaps, in a 
ladylike manner, as Gail Hamilton kicked Hali- 
carnassus, but by no means stopping. Now 
suppose that bar of iron drawn backward by 
reins passing one on each side of your shoulders 
and held firmly between your scapulae ; you 
could not go forward without almost breaking 
your neck, could you ? No more could Billy, if 
his rider would let out his reins, bend his elbows, 



IN THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 147 

and hold his hands low, almost touching his sad- 
dle, but, as it is, he goes on, and if he should 
rear by and by, and if his rider should slide off, 
be not alarmed. The three-legged trotter is not 
the kind of horseman to cling to his reins, and 
he will not be dragged, and Billy is too good- 
tempered not to stop the moment he has rid 
himself of his tormentor. But while he is still 
on Billy's back, and flattering himself that he is 
doing wonders in subjugating the " horse that 
we don't give to everybody," do you and Nell go 
to the centre of the ring and see if you can stop 
properly. Pretty well done, but wait a moment 
before trying it again, for it is not- pleasant to a 
horse. Sit still a few minutes, and then try and 
see if you can back your horse a step or two. 

In order to do this, it is not enough to sit up 
straight and to say " back," or even to say 
"bake," which, according to certain "natural 
riders," is the secret of having the movement 
executed properly. You must draw yourself 
up and lean backward, touching your horse both 
with your foot and with your whip, in order that 
he may stand squarely, and you must raise your 
wrists a little, at the same time turning them 



148 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

inward. The horse will take a step, you must 
instantly sit up straight, lower your hands, and 
then repeat the movement until he has backed 
far enough. Four steps will be quite as many 
as you should try when working thus by your- 
self, because you do not wish to form any bad 
habits, and your master will probably find much 
to criticise in your way of executing the move- 
ment. The most that you can do for yourself 
is to be sure that Abdallah makes but one step 
for each of your demands. If he make two, 
lower your hands, and make him go forward, 
for a horse which backs unbidden is always 
troublesome and may sometimes be dangerous. 
"Just watch that man on Billy Buttons," 
says your master, coming up to you, " and make 
up your minds never to do anything that you 
see him do. And look at these two ladies who 
are mounting now, and see how well it is possi- 
ble to ride without being taught in school, pro- 
vided one rides enough. They cannot trot a 
rod, but they have often been in the saddle half 
a day at a time in Spanish America, whence 
they come, and they can Mope,' as they call it, 
for hours without drawing rein. They sit 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 149 

almost, but not quite straight, and they have 
strength enough in their hands to control any 
of our horses, although they complain that 
these English bits are poor things compared 
to the Spanish bit. You see, they can stay 
on, although they cannot ride scientifically." 

"And isn't that best ?" asked Nell. 

"It is better," corrects the master. "The 
very best is to stay on because one rides scien- 
tifically, and that is what I hope that you two 
will do by and by. There's that girl who always 
brings in a bag of groceries for her horse ! 
Apples this time ! " 

" Isn't it a good thing to give a horse a tid- 
bit of some kind after a ride ? " asked Nell. 

" ' Good,' if it be your own horse, but not good 
in a riding-school. It tends to make the horses 
impatient for the end of a ride, and sometimes 
makes them jealous of one another at the mount- 
ing-stand, and keeps them there so long as to 
inconvenience others who wish to dismount. 
Besides, careless pupils, like that girl, have a 
way of tossing a paper bag into the ring after 
the horse has emptied it, and although we 
always pick it up as soon as possible, it may 



150 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

cause another horse to shy. A dropped hand- 
kerchief is also dangerous, for a horse is a sus- 
picious creature, and fears anything novel as a 
woman dreads a mouse." 

What is the trouble on the mounting-stand ? 
Nothing, except that a tearful little girl wants 
" her dear Daisy ; she never rides anything else, 
and she hates Clifton, and does not like Rex 
and Jewel canters, and she wants Da-a-isy ! " 

" But it is better for you to change horses 
now and then, and Daisy is not fit to be in the 
ring to-day," says your master. "Jewel is very 
easy and good-tempered. Will you have him ?" 

"No, I'll have Abdallah." 

" A lady is riding him." 

"Well, I want him." 

It is against rules for your master to suggest 
such a thing to you, Esmeralda, but suppose 
you go up to the mounting-stand and offer to 
take Jewel yourself and let her have Abdallah. 
You do it ; your master puts you on Jewel, and 
sends the wilful little girl away on Abdallah, 
and then comes up to you and Nell, thanks you, 
and says, " It was very good of you, but she 
must learn some day to ride everything, and I 
shall tell her so, and next time ! " 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 151 

He looks capable of giving her Hector, Irish 
Hector, who is wilful as the wind, but in reward 
for your goodness he bestows a little warning 
about your whips upon Nell, who has a fancy 
for carrying hers slantwise across her body, so 
that both ends show from the back, and the 
whole whip is quite useless as far as the horse 
is concerned, although picturesque enough with 
its loop of bright ribbon. 

" It makes one think of a circus picture," he 
says ; " and, Miss Esmeralda, don't hold your 
whip with the lash pointing outward, to tickle 
Miss Nell's horse, and to make you look like an 
American Mr. Briggs ' going to take a run with 
the Myopias, don't you know.' Isn't this a 
pretty horse ? " 

" Well, I don't know," you say frankly ; " I'm 
no judge. I don't know anything about a horse." 

For once your master loses his self-posses- 
sion, and stares unreservedly. " Child," he 
says, " I never, never before saw anybody in 
this ring who didn't know all about a horse." 

" Well, but I really don't, you know." 

"No, but nobody ever says so. Now just 
hear this new pupil instruct me." 



152 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

The new pupil, who thinks a riding habit 
should be worn over two or three skirts, and 
who is consequently sitting with the aerial ele- 
gance of a feather bed, is riding with her snaffle 
rein, the curb tied on her horse's neck, and is 
clasping it by the centre, allowing the rest to 
hang loose, so that Clifton, supposing that she 
means to give him liberty to browse, is looking 
for grass among the tan. Not finding it, he 
snorts occasionally, whereupon she calls him 
" poor thing," and tells him that " it is a 
warm day, and that he should rest, so he 
should ! " 

" Your reins are too long," says your master. 

" Do you mean that they are too long, or that 
I am holding them so as to make them too 
long," she inquires, in a precise manner. 

" They are right enough. Our saddlers know 
their business. But you are holding them so 
that you might as well have none. Shorten 
them, and make him bring his head up in its 
proper place." 

"But I think it's cruel to treat him so, when 
he's tired, poor thing ! I always hold my reins 
in the middle when I'm driving, and my horse 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 153 

goes straight enough. This one seems dizzy. 
He goes round and round." 

" He wouldn't if he were in harness with two 
shafts to keep his body straight and somebody 
behind him to keep his head straight " — 

" But then why wouldn't it be a good thing 
to have some kind of a light shaft for a begin- 
ner's horse ? " 

" It would be a neat addition to a side sad- 
dle," says your master, " but shorten your reins. 
Take one in each hand. Leave about eight 
inches of rein between your hands. There ! 
See. Now guide your horse." 

He leaves her, in order that he may enjoy the 
idea of the side saddle with shafts, and she 
promptly resumes her old attitude which she feels 
is elegant, and when Clifton wanders up beside 
Abdallah, she sweetly asks Nell, " Is this your 
first lesson ? Do you think this horse is good ? 
The master wants me to pull on my reins, but 
I think it is inhuman, and I won't, and " — but 
Clifton strays out of hearing, and you arouse 
yourselves to remember that you are having 
more fun than work. 

There is plenty of room in the ring, now, so 



154 IX THE RIDIXG-SCHOOL. 

you change hands, and circle to the left, first 
walking and then trotting, slowly at first, and 
then rapidly, finding to your pleasant surprise, 
that, just as you begin to think that you can go 
no further, you are suddenly endowed with new 
strength and can make two more rounds. " A 
good half mile," your master says, approvingly, 
as you fall into a walk and pass him, and then 
you do a volte or two, and one little round at a 
canter, and then walk five minutes, and dis- 
mount to find the rider of the alleged William 
assuring John, the head groom, that that re- 
doubtable animal needs "taking down." 

" Shall ride him with spurs next time," he 
says. " I can manage him, but he would be too 
much for most men," and away he goes and a 
flute-voiced little boy of eight mounts William, 
retransformed into Billy Buttons, and guides 
him like a lamb, and you escape up stairs to 
laugh. But you have no time for this before 
the merciful young woman enters to say 
that she is going to another school, where 
she can do as she pleases and have better 
horses, too, and the more you and Nell assure 
her that there is no school in which she can 



IX THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 



learn without obedience, and that her horse was 
too good, if anything, the more determined she 
becomes, and soon you wisely desist. 

As she departs, " Oh, dear," you say, " I 
thought there was nothing but fun at riding- 
school, and just see all these queer folks." 

" My dear," says philosophic Nell, " they 
are part of the fun. And we are fun to the 
old riders ; and we are all fun to our 
master." 

Here you find yourselves enjoying a bit of 
fun from which your master is shut out, for 
three or four girls come up from the ring to- 
gether, and, not seeing you, hidden behind your 
screens, two, in whom you and Nell have 
already recognized saleswomen from whom you 
have more than once bought laces, begin to talk 
to overawe the others. 

" My deah," says one, " now I think of it, I 
weally don't like the setting of these diamonds 
that you had given you last night. It's too 
heavy, don't you think ? " 

The other replies in a tone which would 
cheat a man, but in which you instantly detect 
an accent of surprise and a determination to 



156 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

play up to her partner as well as possible, that 
she " liked it very well." 

" I should have them reset," says the former 
speaker. " Like mine, you know ; light and airy. 
Deah me, I usedn't to care for diamonds, and 
now I'm puffectly infatooated with them, don't 
you know ! My ! " she screams, catching sight 
of a church clock, and, relapsing into her every- 
day speech : " Half-past four ! And I am due 
at " — [An awkward pause.] " I promised to 
return at four ! " 

There is no more talk about diamonds, but a 
hurried scramble to dress, and a precipitate de- 
parture, after which one of the other ladies is 
heard to say very distinctly : " I remember that 
girl as a pupil when I was teaching in a public 
school, and I know all about her. Salary, four 
dollars a week. Diamonds ! " 

" She registered at the desk as Mrs. Some- 
thing," rejoins the other. "She only came in 
for one ride, and so they gave her a horse with- 
out looking up her reference, but one of the mas- 
ters knew her real name. Poor little goosey ! 
She has simply spoiled her chance of ever be- 
coming a regular pupil, no matter how much 



ZY THE BIDING-SCBOOL. 157 

she may desire it. No riding master will give 
lessons to a person who behaves so. He would 
lose more than he gained by it, no matter how 
long she took lessons. And they knew every- 
body in a riding-school, although they won't 
gossip. I'd as soon try to cheat a Pinkerton 
agency." 

" I know one thing," Nell says, as you walk 
homeward *. " I'm going to take an exercise ride 
between every two lessons, and I'm going 
to ride a new horse every time, if I can get him, 
and I'm going to do what I'm told, and I shall 
not stop trotting at the next lesson, even if I 
feel as if I should drop out of the saddle. I've 
learned so much from an exercise ride." 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 




XI. 

Ride as though you were flying. 

Mrs. Norton. 

\ ROSS," Esmeralda? Why? Because 
having had seven lessons of various 
fhJ l sorts, and two rides, you do not 
feel yourself to be a brilliant horse- 
woman ? Because you cannot trot more than 
half a mile, and because you cannot flatter 
yourself that it would be prudent for you to 
imitate your favorite English heroines, and to 
order your horse brought around to the hall 
door for a solitary morning canter? And you 
really think that you do well to be angry, and 
that, had your teacher been as discreet and as 
entirely admirable as you feel yourself to be, 
you would be more skilful and better informed ? 
Very well, continue to think so, but pray do 
not flatter yourself that your mental attitude 
has the very smallest fragment of an original 
line, curve or angle. Thus, and not otherwise, 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 159 

do all youthful equestrians feel, excepting those 
doubly-dyed in conceit, who fancy that they 
have mastered a whole art in less than twelve 
hours. You certainly are not a good rider, and 
yet you have received instruction on almost 
every point in regard to which you would need 
to know anything in an ordinary ride on a good 
road. You have not yet been taught every one 
of these things, certainly, for she who has been 
really taught a physical or mental feat, can 
execute it at will, but you have been partly 
instructed, and it is yours to see that the in- 
struction is not wasted, by not being either 
repeated, or faithfully reduced to practice. 
Remember clever Mrs. Wesley's answer to the 
unwise person who said in reproof, " You have 
told that thing to that child thirty times." 
" Had I told it but twenty-nine," replied the 
indomitable Susanna, "they had been wasted." 
What you need now is practice, preferably in 
the ring with a teacher, but if you cannot 
afford that, without a teacher, and road rides 
whenever you can have them on a safe horse, 
taken from a school stable, if possible, with 
companions like yourself, intent upon study 



160 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

and enjoyment, not upon displaying their 
habits, or, if they be men, the airs of their 
horses, and the correctness of their equipment, 
or upon racing. 

As for the solitary canter, when the kindly 
Fates shall endow that respectable American 
sovereign, your father, with a park somewhat 
bigger than the seventy-five square feet of 
ground inclosed by the iron railing before his 
present palace, it will be time enough to think 
about that ; but you can no more venture upon 
a public road alone than an English lady could, 
and indeed, your risk in doing so would be 
even greater than hers. Why ? Because in 
rural England all men and all boys, even the 
poorest and the humblest, seem to know in- 
stinctively how a horse should be equipped. 
True, a Wordsworth and a Coleridge did hesi- 
tate for hours over the problem of adjusting a 
horse collar, but Johnny Ragamuffin, from the 
slums, or Jerry Hickathrift, of some shire with 
the most uncouth of dialects, can adjust a slip- 
ping saddle, or, in a hand's turn, can remove a 
stone which is torturing a hoof. 

Not so your American wayfarer, city bred or 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 161 

country grown ; it will be wonderful if he can 
lengthen a stirrup leather, and, before allowing 
such an one to tighten a girth for you, you 
would better alight and take shelter behind a 
tree, and a good large tree, because he may 
drive your horse half frantic by his well-meant 
unskilfulness. Besides, Mrs. Grundy very se- 
verely frowns on the woman who rides alone, 
and there is no appeal from Mrs. Grundy's 
wisdom. Sneer at her, deride her, try, if you 
will, to undermine her authority, but obey her 
commands and yield to her judgment if you 
would have the respect of men, and, what is 
of more consequence, the fair speech of women. 
And so, Esmeralda, as you really have no cause 
for repining, go away to your class lesson, which 
has a double interest for you and Nell, because 
of the wicked pleasure which you derive from 
hearing the master quietly crush the society 
young lady with unanswerable logic. 

You have seen him with a class of obedient, 
well-bred little girls, and know how persuasive 
he can be to a child who is really frightened. 
You have seen him surrounded by a class of 
eager small boys, and beset with a clamorous 



162 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

shout of, " Plea-ease let us mount from the 
ground." You have heard his peremptory 
" No," and then, as they turned away discom- 
fited, have noted how kindly was his "I will 
tell you why, my dear boys. It is because your 
legs are too short. Wait until you are tall, 
then you shall mount." You know that when 
Versatilia, having attended a party the previous 
evening and arisen at five o'clock to practise 
Chopin, and then worked an hour at gymnas- 
tics, could not, from pure weariness, manage 
her horse, how swift was his bound across the 
ring, and how carefully he lifted her from the 
saddle, and gave her over to the ministrations 
of the wise fairy. You know that any teacher 
must exact respect from his scholars, and you 
detect method in all the little sallies which 
almost drive the society young lady to madness, 
but this morning it is your turn. 

You do, one after the other, all the things 
against which you have been warned, and, when 
corrected, you look so very dismal and discour- 
aged that the Scotch teacher comes quietly to 
your side and rides with you, and, feeling that 
he will prevent your horse from doing anything 



IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 163 

dangerous, you begin to mend your ways, when 
suddenly you hear the master proclaim in a 
voice which, to your horrified ears, seems audi- 
ble to the whole universe: "Ah, Miss Esmer- 
alda ! she cannot ride, she cannot do her best, 
unless she has a gentleman beside her." In 
fancy's eye you seem to see yourself blushing 
for that criticism during the remainder of your 
allotted days, and you almost hope that they will 
be few. You know that every girl in the class 
will repeat it to other girls, and even to men, 
and possibly even to Theodore, and that you 
will never be allowed to forget it. Cannot ride 
or do your best without a gentleman, indeed ! 
You could do very well without one gentleman 
whom you know, you think vengefully, and 
then you turn to the kindly Scotch teacher, 
and, with true feminine justice, endeavor to 
punish him for another's misdeeds by telling 
him that, if he please, you would prefer to ride 
alone. As he reins back, you feel a decided 
sinking of the heart and again become con- 
scious that you are oddly incapable of doing 
anything properly, and then, suddenly, it flashes 
upon you that the master was right in his judg- 



164 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

ment, and you fly into a small fury of determi- 
nation to show him that you can exist " without 
a gentleman." Down go your hands, you 
straighten your shoulders, adjust yourself to a 
nicety, think of yourself and of your horse 
with all the intensity of which you are capable, 
and make two or three rounds without reproof. 

"Now," says the teacher, "we will try a 
rather longer trot than usual, and when any 
lady is tired she may go to the centre of the 
ring. Prepare to trot ! Trot ! " 

The leader's eyes sparkle with delight as she 
allows her good horse, after a round or two, to 
take his own speed, the teacher continues his 
usual fire of truthful comments as to shoulders, 
hands and reins, and one after another, the 
girls leave the track, and only the leader and 
you remain, she, calm and cool as an iceberg, 
you, flushed, and compelled to correct your 
position at almost every stride of your horse, 
sometimes obliged to sit close for half a round, 
but with your whole Yankee soul set upon 
trotting until your teacher bids you cease. 
Can you believe your ears ? 

" Brava, Miss Esmeralda ! " shouts the mas- 



IN THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 165 

ten " Go in again. That is the way. Ah, go 
in again ! That is the way the rider is made ! 
Again ! Ah, brava ! " 

" Prepare to whoa ! Whoa ! " says the teacher, 
and both he and your banished cavalier con- 
gratulate you, and it dawns upon you that the 
society young lady is not the only person whom 
the master understands, and is able to manage. 
However, you are grateful, and even pluck up 
courage to salute him when next you pass him ; 
but alas ! that does not soften his heart so 
thoroughly that he does not warningly ejaculate, 
" Right foot," and then comes poor Nell's turn. 
She, reared in a select private school for young 
ladies, and having no idea of proper discipline, 
ventures to explain the cause of some one of 
her misdeeds, instead of correcting it in silence. 
She does it courteously, but is met with, 
"Ah-h-h! Miss Esmeralda, you know Miss 
Nell. Is it not with her on foot as it is on 
horseback? Does she not argue? " 

You shake your head severely and loyally, 
but brave Nell speaks out frankly, "Yes, sir; I 
do. But I won't again." 

"I would have liked to ride straight at him," 



166 IX THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

she confides to you afterwards, " but he was 
right. Still, it is rather astounding to hear the 
truth sometimes." 

And now, for the first time, you are allowed 
to ride in pairs, and the word " interval," mean- 
ing the space between two horses moving on 
parallel lines, is introduced, and you and Nell, 
who are together, congratulate yourselves on 
having in your exercise ride learned something 
of the manner in which the interval may be 
preserved exactly, for it is a greater trouble to 
the others than that "distance" which you have 
been told a thousand times to "keep." You 
have but very little of this practice, however, 
before you are again formed in file, and directed 
to " Prepare to volte singly ! " 

When this is done perfectly, it is a very pretty 
manoeuvre, and, the pupils returning to their 
places at the same moment, the column con- 
tinues on its way with its distances perfectly 
preserved, but as no two of your class make 
circles of the same size, or move at similar 
rates of speed, your small procession finds itself 
in hopeless disorder, and in trying to rearrange 
yourselves, each one of you discovers that she 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



has yet something to learn about turning. 
However, after a little trot and the usual clos- 
ing walk, the lesson ends, and you retire from 
the ring, with the exception of Nell, who, hav- 
ing been taught by an amateur to leap in a more 
or less unscientific manner, has begged the mas- 
ter to give her "one little lesson," a proposi- 
tion to which he has consented. 

The hurdle is brought out, placed half-way 
down one of the long sides of the school, and 
Nell walks her horse quietly down the other, 
turns him, turns him again as she comes on 
the second long side, shakes her reins lightly, 
putting him to a canter, and is over — " beau- 
tifully," you say to yourself, as you watch her 
enviously. 

" You did not fall off," the master comments, 
coiling the lash of the long whip with which he 
has stood beside the hurdle during Miss Nell's 
performance, "but you did not guard yourself 
against falling when you went up, and had you 
had some horses, you might have come down 
before he did, although that is not so easy for a 
lady as it is for a man. When you start for 
a leap, you must draw your right foot well back, 



168 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

so as to clasp the pommel with your knee, and, 
just as the horse stops to spring upward, you 
must lean back and lift both hands a little, and 
then, when he springs, straighten yourself, feel 
proud and haughty, if you can, and, as he comes 
down, lean back once more and raise your hands 
again, because your horse will drop on his fore 
legs, and you desire him to lift them, that he 
may go forward before you do. You should 
practise this, counting one, as you lean back- 
ward, drawing but not turning the hands 
backward and upward ; two, as you straighten 
yourself with the hands down, and three, as you 
repeat the first movement ; and, except in mak- 
ing a water jump, or some other very long leap, 
the 'two' will be the shortest beat, as it is in 
the waltz. And, although you must use some 
strength in raising your hands, you must not 
raise them too high, and you must not lean 
your head forward or draw your elbows back. 
A jockey may, when riding a steeplechase for 
money, but he will be angry with himself for 
having to do it, and a lady must not. I would 
rather that you did not leap again to-day, be- 
cause what I told you will only confuse you 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 169 

until you have time to think it over and to prac- 
tise it by yourself in a chair. And I would 
rather that you did not leap again in your own 
way, until you have let me see you do it once or 
twice more, at least." 

" You did not have to whip my horse to make 
him leap," Nell says. 

"The whip was not to strike him, but to 
show him what was ready for him if he refused," 
says the master. "One must never permit a 
horse to refuse without punishing him, for other- 
wise he may repeat the fault when mounted by 
a poor rider, and a dangerous accident may fol- 
low. One must never brutalize a horse — in- 
deed, no one but a brute does — but one must 
rule him." 

By this time he has taken Nell from her 
saddle and is in the reception room, where he 
finds you grouped and gazing at him in a man- 
ner rather trying even to his soldierly gravity, 
and decidedly amusing to the wise fairy, who 
glances at him with a laugh and betakes herself 
to her own little nest. 

" My young ladies," he says, " I will show 
you one little leap, not high, you know, but a 



170 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

little leap sitting on a side saddle," and, going 
out, he takes Nell's horse, and in a minute you 
see him sailing through the air, light as a bird, 
and without any of the encouraging shouts used 
by some horsemen. It is only a little leap, but 
it impresses your illogical minds as no skilful- 
ness in the voltes and no haute hole airs could 
do, for leaping is the crowning accomplishment 
of riding in the eyes of all your male friends 
except the cavalryman, and when he returns to 
the reception room, you linger in the hope of a 
little lecture, and you are not disappointed. 

"My young ladies," he says, "at the point at 
which you are in the equestrian art, what you 
should do is to keep doing what you know, 
over and over again, no matter if you do it 
wrong. Keep doing and doing, and by and by 
you will do it right. I have tried that plan 
of perfecting each step before undertaking an- 
other, but it is of no use with American ladies. 
You will not do things at all, unless you can do 
them well, you say. That is as if you were to 
go to a ball, and were to say, ' No, I have taken 
lessons, I have danced in school, but I am afraid 
I cannot do so well as some others. I will not 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



dance here.' That would not be the way to do. 
Dance, and again dance, and if you make a little 
mistake, dance again ! The mistake is of the 
past ; it is not matter for troubling ; dance again, 
and do not make it again. And so of riding, ride, 
and again ride ! Try all ways. Take your foot 
out of the stirrup sometimes, and slip it back 
again without stopping your horse, and when you 
can do it at the walk, do it at the trot, and keep 
rising ! And learn not to be afraid to keep 
trotting after you are a little tired. Keep trot- 
ting ! Keep trotting ! Then you will know 
real pleasure, and you will not hurt your horses, 
as you will if you pull them up just as they 
begin to enjoy the pace. And then" — looking 
very hard at nothing at all, and not at you, 
Esmeralda, as your guilty soul fancies — "and 
then, gentlemen will not be afraid to ride with 
you for fear of spoiling their horses by checking 
them too often." 

And with this he goes away, and oh ! Esmer- 
alda, does not the society young lady make life 
pleasant for you and Nell in the dressing-room, 
until the beauty attracts general attention by 
stating that she has had an hour of torment ! 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



" Perhaps you have not noticed that most of 
these saddles are buckskin," she continues; "I 
did not, until I found myself slipping about on 
mine to day as if it were glazed, and lo! it was 
pigskin, and that made the difference. I would 
not have it changed, because the Texan is always 
sneering at English pigskin, and I wanted to 
learn to ride on it ; but, until the last quarter 
of the hour, I expected to slip off. I rather 
think I should have," she adds, " only just as I 
was ready to slip off on one side, something 
would occur to make me slip to the other. I 
shall not be afraid of pigskin again, and you 
would better try it, every one of you. Suppose 
you should get ahorse from a livery stable some 
day with one of those slippery saddles ! " 

" I am thinking of buying a horse," says the 
society young lady ; "but the master says that 
I do not know enough to ride a beast that has 
been really trained. Fancy that ! " 

" And all the authorities agree with him," 
says Versatilia, who has accumulated a small 
library of books on equestrianism since she 
began to take lessons. "Your horse ought not 
to know much more than you do — for if 



W THE RIDIXG-SCHOOL. 173 

he do, you will find him perfectly unman- 
ageable." 

Here you and Nell flee on the wings of dis- 
cretion. The daring of the girl ! To tell the 
society young lady that a horse may know more 
than she does ! 




174 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



XII. 

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy. 

Shakespeare. 

jjND now, Esmeralda, having determined 
to put your master's advice into prac- 
tice and to "keep riding," you think 
that you must have a habit in order to 
be ready to take to the road whenever you have 
an opportunity, and to be able to accompany 
Theodore, should he desire to repeat your music- 
ride ? And you would like to know just what 
it will cost, and everything about it? And first, 
what color can you have ? 

You "can" have any color, Esmeralda, and 
you " can " have any material, for that matter. 
Queen Guinevere wore grass green silk, and if 
her skirt were as long as those worn by Matilda 
of Flanders, Norman William's wife, centuries 
after, her women must have spent several hours 
daily in mending it, unless she had a new habit 
for every ride, or unless the English forest roads 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 175 

were wider than they are to-day. But all the 
ladies of Arthur's court seem to have ridden in 
their ordinary dress. Enid, for instance, was 
arrayed in the faded silk which had been her 
house-dress and walking-dress in girlhood, when 
she performed her little feat of guiding six armor- 
laden horses. Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart 
seem to have liked velvet, either green or black, 
and to have adorned it with gold lace, and both 
probably took their fashions from France ; the 
young woman in the Scotch ballad was " all in 
cramoisie " ; Kate Peyton wore scarlet broad- 
cloth, but secretly longed for purple, having 
been told by a rival, who probably found her 
too pretty in scarlet, that green or purple was 
"her color." 

There are crimson velvet and dark blue velvet 
and Lincoln green velvet habits without end in 
fiction, and in the records of English royal ward- 
robes, but, beautiful as velvet is, and exquisitely 
becoming as it would be, you would better not 
indulge your artistic taste by wearing it. It 
would cost almost three times as much as cloth ; 
it would be nearly impossible to make a well 
fitting modern skirt of it, and it would be worn 



176 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

into ugliness by a very few hours of trotting. 
Be thankful, therefore, that fashion says that 
woollen cloth is the most costly material which 
may be used. 

In India, during the last two or three seasons, 
Englishwomen have worn London-made habits 
of very light stuffs, mohairs and fine Bradford 
woollens, and there is no reason why any Ameri- 
can woman should not do the same. In Hyde 
Park, for three summers, in those early morning 
hours when some of the best riders go, attended 
by a groom, to enjoy something more lively than 
the afternoon parade, skirts of light tweed and 
covert coats of the same material worn over 
white silk shirts, with linen collars and a man's 
tie, have made their wearers look cool and com- 
fortable, and duck covert jackets, with ordinary 
woollen skirts and linen shirts have had a similar 
effect, but American women have rather hesi- 
tated as to adopting these fashions, lest some 
one, beholding, should say that they were not 
correct. Thus did they once think that they 
must wear bonnets with strings in church, no 
matter what remonstrance was made by the 
thermometer, or how surely they were deafened 



IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 177 

to psalm and sermon by longing for the cool, 
comfortable hats, which certain wise persons had 
decided were too frivolous for the sanctuary. 

New York girls have worn white cloth habits 
at Lenox without shocking the moral sense of 
the inhabitants, but Lenox, during the season, 
probably contains a smaller percentage of sim- 
pletons than any village in the United States, 
and some daring Boston girls have appeared this 
year in cool and elegant habits of shepherd's 
check, and have pleased every good judge who 
has seen them. If quite sure that you have as 
much common sense and independence as these 
young ladies, imitate them, but if not, wear the 
regulation close, dark cloth habit throughout 
the year, be uncomfortable, and lose half the 
benefit of your summer rides from becoming 
overheated, to say nothing of being unable to 
"keep trotting" as long as you could if suitably 
clothed for exercise. But might you not, if your 
habit were thin, catch cold while your horse was 
walking ? You might if you tried, but probably 
you would not be in a state so susceptible to 
that disaster as you would if heavily dressed. 

There is little danger that the temperature 



178 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

will change so much during a three hours' ride 
that you cannot keep yourself sufficiently warm 
for comfort and for safety, and if you start for 
a longer excursion, you must use your common 
sense. The best and least expensive way of 
solving the difficulty is to have an ordinary 
habit, with the waist and skirt separate, and 
to wear a lighter coat, with a habit shirt, or 
with a habit shirt and waistcoat, whenever some- 
thing lighter is desirable. This plan gives three 
changes of dress, which should be quite enough 
for any reasonable girl. 

But still, you do not know what color you 
can wear ? Black is suitable for all hours and 
all places, even for an English fox hunt, although 
the addition of a scarlet waistcoat, just visible 
at the throat and below the waist, is desir- 
able for the field. Dark blue, dark green, dark 
brown are suitable for most occasions, and a 
riding master whose experience has made him 
acquainted with the dress worn in the principal 
European capitals, declares his preference for 
gray with a white waistcoat. 

Among the habits shown by English tailors 
at the French exhibition in 1889, was one of 



IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 179 

blue gray, and a Paris tailor displayed a tan- 
colored habit made with a coat and a waistcoat 
revealing a white shirt front. London women 
are now wearing white waistcoats and white 
ties in the Park, both tie and waistcoat as stiff 
and masculine as possible. 

This affectation of adopting men's dress, when 
riding, is comparatively modern. Sir Walter 
gives the date in " Rob Roy," when Mr. Francis 
Osbaldistone sees Diana for the first time and 
notes that she wears a coat, vest and hat resem- 
bling those of a man, " a mode introduced dur- 
ing my absence in France," he says, " and 
perfectly new to me." But this coat had the 
collar and wide sharply pointed lapels and deep 
cuffs now known as " directoire," and its skirts 
were full, and so long that they touched the 
right side of the saddle, and skirts, lapels, col- 
lar and cuffs were trimmed with gold braid 
almost an inch wide. The waistcoat, the vest, 
as Sir Walter calls it, not knowing the risk that 
he ran in this half century of being considered 
as speaking American, had a smaller, but simi- 
lar, collar and lapels, worn outside those of the 
coat, and the "man's tie" was of soft white mus- 



180 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

lin, and a muslin sleeve and ruffles were visible 
at the wrists. The hat was very broad brimmed, 
and was worn set back from the forehead, and 
bent into coquettish curves, and altogether the 
fair Diana might depend upon having a very 
long following of astonished gazers if she should 
ride down Beacon Street or appear in Central 
Park to-day. 

Your habit shall not be like hers, Esmeralda, 
but shall have a plain waist, made as long as 
you can possibly wear it while sitting, slightly 
pointed in front and curving upward at the side 
to a point about half an inch below that where 
the belt of your skirt fastens, and having a very 
small and perfectly flat postilion, or the new 
English round back. Elizabeth of Austria may 
wear a princess habit, if it please her, but would 
you, Esmeralda, be prepared, in order to have 
your habit fit properly, to postpone buttoning 
it until after you were placed in the saddle, as 
she was accustomed to do in the happy days 
when she could forget her imperial state in her 
long wild gallops across the beautiful Irish hunt- 
ing counties? The sleeves shall not be so tight 
that you can feel them, nor shall the armholes 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 181 

be so close as to prevent you from clasping your 
hands above your head with your arms extended 
at full length, and the waist shall be loose. If 
you go to a tailor, Esmeralda, prepare yourself 
to make a firm stand on this point. Warn him, 
in as few words as possible, that you will not 
take the habit out of his shop unless it suits 
you, and do not allow yourself to be overawed by 
the list of his patrons, all of whom "wear their 
habits far tighter, ma'am." Unless you can draw 
a full, deep breath with your habit buttoned, you 
cannot do yourself or your teacher any credit in 
trotting, and you will sometimes find yourself 
compelled to give your escort the appearance of 
being discourteous by drawing rein suddenly, 
leaving him, unwarned, to trot on, apparently 
disregarding your plight. Both your horse and 
his will resent your action, and unless he resem- 
ble both Moses and Job more strongly than most 
Americans, he will have a few words to say in 
regard to it, after you have repeated it once or 
twice. And, lastly, Esmeralda, no riding master 
with any sense of duty will allow you to wear 
such a habit in his presence without telling you 
his opinion of it, and stating his reasons for 



7.V THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



objecting to it, and you best know whether or 
not a little lecture of that sort will be agreeable, 
especially if delivered in the presence of other 
women. Warn your tailor of your determination, 
then, and if his devotion to his ideal should com- 
pel him in consequence to decline your patron- 
age, go to another, until you find one who will 
be content not to transform you into the like- 
ness of a wooden doll. Women are not made 
to advertise tailors, whatever the tailors may 
think. 

What must you pay for your habit ? You 
may pay three hundred dollars, if you like, 
although that price is seldom charged, unless to 
customers who seem desirous of paying it, but 
the usual scale runs downward from one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. This includes cloth and 
all other materials, and finish as perfect within 
as without, and is not dear, considering the retail 
price of cloth, the careful making, and the touch 
of style which only practised hands can give. 
The heavy meltons worn for hunting habits 
in England cost seven dollars a yard ; English 
tweeds which have come into vogue during 
the last few years in London, cost six dollars ; 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 183 

broadcloth five dollars ; rough, uncut cheviots, 
about six dollars ; and shepherds' checks, single 
width, about two dollars and a half. For waist- 
coats, duck costs two dollars and a quarter a 
yard, and fancy flannels and Tattersall checks 
anywhere from one dollar and a half to two dol- 
lars. The heavy cloths are the most economical 
in the end, because they do not wear out where 
the skirt is stretched over the pommel, the point 
at which a light material is very soon in tatters. 
The small, flat buttons cost twenty-five cents 
a dozen ; the fine black sateen used for linings 
may be bought for thirty-five cents a yard, and 
canvas for interlinings for twenty-five cents. 
With these figures you may easily make your 
own computations as to the cost of material, for 
unless a woman is "more than common tall," 
two yards and a half will be more than enough 
for her habit skirt, which should not rest an inch 
on the ground on the left side when she stands, 
and should be not more than a quarter of a yard 
longer in its longest part. Two lengths, with 
allowance for the hem two inches deep are needed 
for the skirt, and when very heavy melton is used, 
the edges are left raw, the perfect riding skirt in 



184 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

modern eyes being that which shows no trace of 
the needle, an end secured with lighter cloths 
by pressing all the seams before hemming, and 
then very lightly blind-stitching the pointed 
edges in their proper place. 

Strength is not desirable in the sewing of a 
habit skirt. It is always possible that one may 
be thrown, and the substantial stitching which 
will hold one to pommel and stirrup may be 
fatal to life. So hems are constructed to tear 
away easily, and seams are run rather than 
stitched, or stitched with fine silk, and the cloth 
is not too firmly secured to the wide sateen 
belt. The English safety skirts, invented three 
or four years ago, have the seam on the knee- 
gore open from the knee down to the edge, and 
the two breadths are caught together with but- 
tons and elastic loops, all sewed on very lightly 
so as to give way easily. The effect of this 
style of cutting is, if one be thrown, to trans- 
form one into a flattered or libellous likeness 
of Lilian Russell in her naval uniform, pre- 
pared to scamper away from one's horse, and 
from any other creatures with eyes, but with 
one's bones unbroken and one's face unscratched 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 185 

by being dragged and pounded over the road, 
or by being kicked. 

For the waist and sleeves, Esmeralda, you 
will allow as much as for those of your ordinary 
frocks, and if you cannot find a fashionable 
tailor who will consent to adapt himself to your 
tastes and to your purse, you may be fortunate 
enough to find men who have worked in shops, 
but who now make habits at home, charging 
twenty-five dollars for the work, and doing it 
well and faithfully, although, of course, not 
being able to keep themselves informed as to 
the latest freaks of English fashion by foreign 
travellers and correspondents, as their late em- 
ployers do. There are two or three dressmak- 
ers in Boston and five or six in New York 
whose habits fit well, and are elegant in every 
particular, and, if you can find an old-fashioned 
tailoress who really knows her business, and 
can prepare yourself to tell her about a few 
special details, you may obtain a well-fitting 
waist and skirt at a very reasonable price. 

Of these details the first is that the sateen 
lining should be black. Gay colors are very 
pretty, but are soon spoiled by perspiration, and 



186 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

white, the most fitting lining for a lady's ordi- 
nary frock, is unsuitable for a habit, since one 
long, warm ride may convert it into something 
very untidy of aspect. This lining, of which 
all the seams should be turned toward the out- 
side, should end at the belt line, and between it 
and the cloth outside should be a layer of can- 
vas, cut and shaped as carefully as possible, 
and the whalebones, each in its covering, should 
be sewed between the canvas and the sateen. 
If a waistcoat be worn, it should have a double 
sateen back with canvas interlining, and may be 
high in the throat or made with a step collar 
like that of the waist. The cuffs are simply in- 
dicated by stitching and are buttoned on the 
outside of the sleeve with two or three buttons. 
Simulated waistcoats, basted firmly to the shoul- 
der seams and under-arm seams of the waist, 
and cut high to the throat with an officer collar, 
are liked by ladies with a taste for variety, and 
are not expensive, as but a small quantity of 
material is required for each one. They are 
fastened by small hooks except in those parts 
shown by the openings, and on these flat or 
globular pearl buttons are used. 



IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 



When a step collar and a man's tie are worn, 
the ordinary high collar and chemisette, sold 
for thirty-eight cents, takes the place of the 
straight linen band worn with the habit high in 
the throat, and the proper tie is the white silk 
scarf fastened in a four-in-hand knot, and, if 
you be wise, Esmeralda, you will buy this at a 
good shop, and pay two dollars and a quarter for 
it, rather than to pay less and repent ever after. 
Some girls wear white lawn evening ties, but 
they are really out of place in the saddle, in 
which one is supposed to be in morning dress. 
Wear the loosest of collars and cuffs, and fasten 
the latter to your habit sleeves with safety pins. 
The belts of your habit skirt and waist should also 
be pinned together at the back, at the sides and 
in front, unless your tailor has fitted them with 
hooks and eyes, and if you be a provident young 
person, you will tuck away a few more safety 
pins, a hairpin or two, half a row of u the com- 
mon pin of North America," and a quarter-ounce 
flask of cologne, in one of the little leather 
change pouches, and put it either in your habit 
pocket or your saddle pocket. Sometimes, after 
a dusty ride of an hour or two, a five-minute 



188 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

halt under the trees by the roadside, gives op- 
portunity to remove the dust from the face and 
to cool the hands, and the cologne is much 
better than the handkerchief " dipped in the 
pellucid waters of a rippling brook," a la novel- 
ist, for the pellucid brook of Massachusetts is 
very likely to run past a leather factory, in 
which case its waters are anything but agree- 
able. Whether or not your habit shall have a 
pocket is a matter of choice. If it have one, it 
should be small and should be on the left side, 
just beyond the three flat buttons which fasten 
the front breadth and side breadth of your habit 
together at the waist. When thus placed, you 
can easily reach it with either hand. 

Fitting the habit over the knee is a feat not 
to be effected by an amateur without a pattern, 
and the proper slope and adjustment of the 
breadths come by art, not chance ; but Har- 
per's Bazar patterns are easily obtained by mail. 
The best tailors adjust the skirt while the wearer 
sits on a side saddle, and there is no really good 
substitute for this, for, although one may guess 
fairly well at the fit of the knee, nothing but 
actual trial will show whether or not, when in 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 



the saddle, the left side of the skirt hangs per- 
fectly straight, concealing the right side, and 
leaving the horse's body visible below it. When 
your skirt is finished, no matter if it be made 
by the very best of tailors, wear it once in the 
school before you appear on the road in it, and, 
looking in the mirror, view it " with a cricket's 
eye," as the little boy said when he appeared on 
the school platform as an example of the advan- 
tages of the wonderful merits of oral instruc- 
tion. 

An elastic strap about a quarter of a yard 
long should be sewed half way between the 
curved knee seam and the hem, and should be 
slipped over the right toe before mounting, and 
a second strap, for the left heel, should be sewed 
on the last seam on the under side of the habit, 
to be adjusted after the foot is placed in the 
stirrup. The result of this cutting and arrange- 
ment is the straight, simple, modern habit 
which is so great a change from the riding dress 
of half a century ago, with its full skirt which 
nearly swept the ground. The short skirt first 
appears in the English novel in " Guy Living- 
stone," and is worn by the severe and upright 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



Lady Alice, the dame who hesitated not to 
snub Florence Bellasis, when snubbing was 
needful, and who was a mighty huntress. Now 
everybody wears it, and the full skirts are seen 
nowhere except in the riding-school dressing- 
rooms, where they yet linger because they may 
be worn by anybody, whereas the plain skirt fits 
but one person. It seems odd that so many 
years were required to discover that a short 
skirt, held in place by a strap placed over the 
right toe and another slipped over the left heel, 
really protected the feet more than yards of 
loosely floating cloth, but did not steam and 
electricity wait for centuries ? Since the new 
style was generally adopted, Englishwomen allow 
themselves the luxury of five or six habits, in- 
stead of the one or two formerly considered 
sufficient, but each one is worn for several years. 
When the extravagant wife, in Mrs. Alexander's 
" A Crooked Path," suggests that she may soon 
want a new habit, her husband asks indignantly, 
" Did I not give you one two years ago ? " 

The trousers may match the habit or may be 
of stockinet, or the imported cashmere tights 
may be worn. Women who are not fat and 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 191 

whose muscles are hard, may choose whichso- 
ever one of these pleases them, but fat women, 
and women whose flesh is not too solid, must 
wear thick trousers, and would better have 
them lined with buckskin, unless they would be 
transformed into what Sairey would call " a 
mask of bruiges," and would frequent remark to 
Mrs. Harris that such was what she expected. 
Trousers with gaiter fastenings below the knee 
are preferred by some women who put not their 
faith in straps alone, and knee-breeches are 
liked by some, but to wear knee-breeches means 
to pay fifteen dollars for long riding-boots, in- 
stead of the modest seven or eight dollars 
which suffice to buy ordinary Balmoral boots. 
Gaiters must button on the left side of each 
leg, and trouser straps may be sewed on one 
side and buttoned on the other, instead of being 
buttoned on both sides as men's are. Tailors 
sometimes insist on two buttons, but as a woman 
does not wear her trousers except with the strap, 
it is difficult to see why she needs to be able to 
remove it. The best material for the strap is 
thick soft kid, or thin leather lined with cloth. 
The thick, rubber strap used by some tailors is 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



dangerous, sometimes preventing the rider from 
placing her foot in the stirrup, sometimes mak- 
ing her lose it at a critical moment. Whether 
breeches, tights or trousers are worn, they must 
be loose at the knee, or trotting will be impossi- 
ble, and the rider will feel as if bound to the 
second pommel, and will sometimes be unable 
to rise at all. 

As to gloves, the choice lies between the 
warm antelope skin mousquetairesat two dollars 
a pair, and the tan-colored kid gauntlets at the 
same price. The former are most comfortable 
for winter, the latter for summer, and neither 
can be too large. Nobody was ever ordered out 
for execution for wearing black gloves, although 
they are unusual, and now and then one sees a 
woman, whose soul is set on novelty, gorgeous 
in yellow cavalry gauntlets, or even with white 
dragoon gauntlets, making her look like a badly 
focused photograph. 

Lastly, as to the hat. What shall it be, 
Esmeralda ? 

No tuft of grass-green plumes for you, like 
Queen Guinevere's, nor yet the free flowing 
feather to be seen in so many beautiful old 



IN THE BIDING- SCHOOL. 193 

French pictures, nor the plumed hat which "my 
sweet Mistress Ann Dacre" wore when Con- 
stance Sherwood's loving eyes first fell upon 
her, but the simple jockey cap, exactly match- 
ing your habit, and costing two dollars and a 
half or three dollars ; the Derby cap for the 
same price or a little more ; or, best of all, the 
English or the American silk hat, as universally 
suitable as a black silk frock was in the good 
old times when Mrs. Rutherford Birchard Hayes 
was in the White House. The English Henry 
Heath hat at seven or eight dollars, with its 
velvet forehead piece and its band of soft, rough 
silk, stays in place better than any other, but it 
is too heavy for comfort. If you can have an 
American hatter remodel it, making it weigh 
half a pound less, it will be perfection, always 
provided that he does not, as he assuredly will 
unless you forbid it, throw away the soft, rough 
band, which keeps the hat in place, and substi- 
tute one of the American smooth bands, designed 
to slip off without ruffling the hair, and doing 
it instantly, the moment that a breeze touches 
the brim of the hat. A hunting guard, fastened 
at the back of the hat brim and between two 



194 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

habit buttons is better than an elastic caught 
under the braids of your hair, for when an elastic 
does not snap outright, it is always trying to do 
so, and in the effort holds the hat so tightly on 
the head as sometimes to give actual pain. The 
hunting guard is no restraint at all unless the 
hat flies off, in which case it keeps it from fol- 
lowing the example of John Gilpin's, but with 
the Henry Heath lining, your hat is perfectly 
secure in anything from a Texas Norther to a 
New England east wind. If you follow London 
example, and wear a straw hat for morning rides, 
sew a piece of white velvet on the inner side of 
the band, and your forehead will not be marked. 
Arrayed after these suggestions, Esmeralda, 
you will be inconspicuous, and that is the gen- 
eral aim of the true lady's riding dress, with the 
exception of those worn by German princesses, 
when, at a review, they lead the regiments 
which they command. Then, their habits may 
be frogged and braided with gold, or they may 
fire the air in habit and hat of white and scarlet, 
the regimental colors, as the Empress of Ger- 
many did the other day. If you were sure of 
riding as these royal ladies do, perhaps even 



IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 195 

white and scarlet might be permitted to you, 
but can you fancy yourself, Esmeralda, sweep- 
ing across a parade ground with a thousand 
horsemen behind you, and ready to salute your 
sovereign and commander-in-chief at the right 
moment, and to go forward with as much pre- 
cision as if you, too, were one of those magnifi- 
cently drilled machines brought into being by 
the man of blood and iron ? 



H 



196 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



XIII. 

'Tis an old maxim in the schools, 
That flattery's the food of fools. 

Swift. 

\Y American children and American 
girls were the angels which their 
mothers and their lovers tell them 
that they are, the best possible rid- 
ing master for them would be an American sol- 
dier who had learned and had taught riding at 
West Point. Being of the same race, pupil and 
teacher would have that vast fund of common 
memories, hopes and feelings ; that common 
knowledge of character, of good qualities and 
of defects, and that ability to divine motives 
and to predict action which constitute perfect 
sympathy, and their relations to one another 
would be mutually agreeable and profitable. 
Unfortunately, Esmeralda, you, like possibly 
some other American girls, are not an angel, 
and if you were, you could not have such a 



IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 197 

riding master, because the very few men who 
have the specified qualifications are too well ac- 
quainted with the characteristics of their coun- 
trywomen to think of undertaking to instruct 
them in the equestrian art. Who, then, shall 
be his substitute ? Clearly, either a person suf- 
ficiently patient and clever to neutralize the 
faults of American women, or one capable of 
adapting himself to them, of eluding them, and 
of forcing a certain quantity of knowledge upon 
his pupils, almost in spite of themselves. The 
former is hardly to be found among natives 
of the United States ; the latter can be found 
nowhere else, except, possibly, in certain Eng- 
lish shires in which the inhabitants so closely 
resemble the average American that when they 
immigrate hither they are scarcely distinguish- 
able from men whose ancestors came two or 
three centuries ago. 

A foreign teacher, whether French, German 
or Hungarian, always regards himself in the just 
and proper European manner as the superior of 
his pupil. The traditions in which he has been 
reared, under which he has been instructed, not 
only in riding, but in all other matters, survive 



198 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 

from the time when all learning was received 
from men whose title to respect rested not only 
on their wisdom but on their ecclesiastical office, 
and who expected and received as much defer- 
ence from their pupils as from their congrega- 
tions. Undeniably, there are unruly children in 
European schools, but their rebelliousness is 
never encouraged, and their teachers are ex- 
pected to quell it, not to submit to it, much less 
to endeavor to avoid it by giving no commands 
which are distasteful. Even in the worst con- 
ducted private schools on the continent, there 
is always at least one master who must be 
obeyed, whose authority is held as beyond ap- 
peal, and in the school conducted either by the 
church or by civil authority, the duty of enforc- 
ing perfect discipline is regarded as quite as 
imperative as that of demanding well-learned 
lessons. 

Passing through these institutions, the young 
European enters the military school with as lit- 
tle thought of disputing any order which may 
be given him as of arguing with the priest who 
states a theological truth from the pulpit. And, 
indeed, had he been reared under the tutelage 



IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 1M 

of one of those modern silver-tongued American 
pedagogues, who make gentle requests lest they 
should elicit antagonism by commands, the mili- 
tary school would soon completely alter the com- 
plexion of his ideas, for he would find his failures 
in the execution of orders treated as disobedi- 
ence. He would not be punished at first, it is 
true, but pretty theories that he was nervous, 
or ill, or the victim of hereditary disability, or 
of fibre too delicately attenuated to perform any 
required act, would not be admitted except, in- 
deed, as a reason for expulsion. Moreover, the 
tests to which he would be compelled to submit 
before this escape from discipline lay open to 
him, would be neither slight nor easily borne, for 
the European military teacher has yet to learn 
the existence of that exquisite personal dignity 
which is hopelessly blighted by corporal pun- 
ishment for infractions of discipline. 

"Will you teach me to ride, sir?" asked a 
Boston man of an Hungarian soldier, one of the 
pioneers among Boston instructors. 

" Will I teach you ! Eh ! I don't know," said 
the exile dolefully, for during his few weeks in 
the city, he had seen something of the ways of 



200 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

the American who fancies himself desirous of 
being taught. " Perhaps you will learn, but will 
— I — teach — you ? You can ride ? " 

"A little." 

"Very well! Mount that horse, and ride 
around the ring." 

Away went the pupil, doing his best, but be- 
fore he had traversed two sides of the school, 
the master shouted to the horse, and the pupil 
was sitting in the tan. He picked himself up, 
and returned to the mounting-stand, saying : 
"Will you tell me how to stay on next time ? " 

"I will," cried the Hungarian in a small 
ecstasy; "and I will make a rider of you!" 
And he did, too, and certainly took as much 
pleasure as his pupil in the long course of 
instruction which followed, and in the resultant 
proficiency. 

In European riding-schools for ladies, there 
is, of course, no resort to corporal punishment, 
but there is none of that careful abstention from 
telling disagreeable truths which popular igno- 
rance exacts from American teachers in all 
schools, except in the military and naval acade- 
mies. Indeed, the need of it is hardly felt, for 



7iV THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 201 

that peculiar self-consciousness which makes an 
American awkward under observation and res- 
tive under reproof is scarcely found in countries 
not democratic, and the " I'm ez good ez you 
be" feeling which is at the bottom of American 
intractability, has no chance to flourish in lands 
where position is a matter of birth and not of 
self-assertion. 

A French woman, compelled to make part of 
her toilet in a railway waiting-room under the 
eyes of half a score of enemies, that is to say, of 
ten other women, arranges her tresses, purchased 
or natural, uses powder-puff and hare's foot if 
she choose, and turns away from the mirror 
armed for conquest ; but an American similarly 
situated, forgets half her hair-pins, does not 
dare to wash her face carefully lest some one 
should sniff condemnation of her fussiness, and 
looks worse after her efforts at beautifying. A 
French girl, told that her English accent is bad, 
corrects it carefully; an American, gently re- 
minded that a French " u " is not pronounced 
like " you," changes it to " oo," and stares de- 
fiance at Bocher and all his works. And even 
that commendable reserve which hinders well- 



202 IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 

bred Americans from frank self-discussion, 
stands in the way of perfect sympathy between 
him and the European master, representative 
of races in which everybody, from an emperor 
in his proclamations to the peasant chatting 
over his beer or petit vin, may discourse upon 
his own most recondite peculiarities. 

For all these reasons, the European riding 
master is often misunderstood, even by his 
older pupils, and young girls almost invariably 
mistake his patient reiteration and his method- 
ical vivacity for anger, so that his classes 
seldom contain any pupils not really anxious to 
learn, or whose parents are not determined that 
they shall learn in his school and in no other. 
Teaching is a matter of strict conscience with 
him, and even after years of experience, and in 
spite of more than one severe lesson as to 
American sensitiveness, he continues to speak 
the truth. Even when his pupils have become 
what the ordinary observer calls perfect riders, 
he allows no fault to go unreproved, although 
nobody can more thoroughly enjoy the evening 
classes, organized by fairly good riders rather 
for amusement than for instruction. If you 



m THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 203 

think you can endure perfect discipline and 
incessant plain speaking go to him, Esmeralda. 

If you cannot, take the other alternative, the 
American or the English master, but remember 
that it is only by absolute submission that you 
will obtain the best instruction which he is ca- 
pable of giving. If you do not compel him to 
tax his mind with remembering all your foibles 
and weaknesses, you may, thanks to race sym- 
pathy, learn more rapidly at first from him than 
from a foreigner, and, unless you are rude and 
insubordinate to the point of insolence, you 
may depend upon receiving no actual harshness 
from him, although he will refuse to flatter you, 
and will repeat his warnings against faults, 
quite as persistently as any foreigner. 

A very little observation of your fellow pupils 
will show you that presumption upon his good 
nature is wofully common, and that his Ameri- 
can inability to forget that a woman is a woman, 
even when she conducts herself as if her name 
were Ursa or Jenny, often subjects him to stu- 
pendous impertinence, which he receives with 
calm and silent contempt. You will find that 
his instruction follows the same lines as that of 



204 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 

all foreign masters in the United States, for 
there is no American system of horsemanship, 
the traditions of the army, and of the north, 
being derived from France, those of the south 
from England, and those of the southwest from 
Spain, by the way of Mexico and Texas. 
Under his instruction, you will remain longer in 
the debatable land between perfect ignorance 
of horsemanship, and being a really accom- 
plished rider, than you would if taught by a 
foreigner, but, as has already been said, you 
will learn more rapidly at first, and the result, 
if you choose to work hard, will be much the 
same. 

Should you, by way of experiment, choose to 
take lessons from both native and foreign mas- 
ters, you will find each frankly ready to admit 
the merits of the other, and to acknowledge 
that he himself is better suited to some pupils 
than to others and, to come back to what was 
told you at the outset, you will find them unan- 
imous in assuring you that your best teacher, 
the instructor without whose aid you can learn 
nothing, is yourself, your slightly rebellious, but 
withal clever, American self. You can learn, 



7iY THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 205 

Esmeralda. There is no field of knowledge 
into which the American woman has attempted 
to enter, in which she has not demonstrated 
her ability to compete, when she chooses to put 
forth all her energy, with her sisters of other 
nations, but she must work, and must work 
steadily. There are American teachers of 
grammar who cannot parse ; American female 
journalists who cannot write ; American women 
calling themselves doctors, but unable to make 
a diagnosis between the cholera and the 
measles ; and American women practising law 
and dependent for a living on blatant self-adver- 
tising, but with the faculties of Vassar and 
Wellesley in existence ; with the editor of Har- 
per's Bazar receiving the same salary as Mr. 
Curtis ; with American women acknowledged 
as a credit to the medical and to the legal pro- 
fession — what of it ? The American woman 
can learn anything, can do anything. Do you 
learn to ride, and, having done it, "keep 
riding." At present you have received just 
sufficient instruction to qualify you to ride 
properly escorted, on good roads, but — 
" Keep Riding ! " 



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